Richmond-Burton High School District 157 votes unanimously to raise property tax levy

Richmond-Burton High School District 157 this month unanimously voted to raise the school system’s property tax levy by about 4.8% to just shy of $11 million.

But due to rising property values among properties in the district, Superintendent Tom Lind said tax bills paid to the district are expected to decrease this year.

Plus, the district did not have to issue a levy for building bonds after paying off the debt in 2020. The total collection for those bonds was $720,000 annually.

Lind estimated the District 157 levy will now cost $1,669 for the owner of a $200,000 home, about $99 less than last year’s levy.

“The equalized assessed value continues to increase in our communities, pushing our tax rate lower,” he said. “With the end of the annual $720,000 bond payment and a steadily increasing EAV, our tax rate drops 2.91% in fiscal year 2019 to 2.75% in 2020 even with the levy increase.”

Within the past five years, the levy has been raised twice by the high school system’s board, Lind said.

In justifying the need for the increase this year, Lind cited “the need to stay on schedule with district maintenance projects in our facilities and the need to continue to support and grow student programming” that were identified in the school board’s goals for 2020 and 2021.

“The [District 157 school board] remains committed to fiscal responsibility to the taxpayer while ensuring scheduled facility maintenance projects remain on schedule according to the District’s Long Term Facilities Plan competed in the spring of 2020,” Lind said.