A new school means new tax
The Plummer-Worley School District has $4 million in its general maintenance and operation fund this year, and expects to spend $17.2 million.
Marcia Hoffman, the district's business manager, said the anticipated expenditures are higher this year because $10.9 million has been added to the budget to cover the cost of building a new elementary school in Plummer.
Because of the school construction expenses, the 445-student district's anticipated total spending per pupil this fiscal year is $38,652.
The amount spent per full-time student from the district's general fund is expected to be $8,989.
Salaries, benefits, utilities, school supplies, maintenance, transportation and insurance are paid for out of the district's $4 million general fund.
The district has budgeted $87,849 to pay for a new school bus this year.
While the new school is under construction, elementary school students are being housed for two years in rented portable buildings at an annual cost of $113,625.
The Plummer-Worley budget also includes $1.3 million in federal grants which pay for other expenses - the district's after school program, some contracted services and supplies.
State grants of $78,308 pay for driver's education, a school nurse, vocational education and technology. Revenue includes local grants totaling $225,679 include funds from the Coeur d'Alene Casino, a library grant and a state award won by the district's middle school.
Property owners in the Plummer-Worley district got a big surprise when they received their most recent tax bills. School taxes jumped from 6 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value to $1.43 per $1,000.
Most of the sharp increase comes from a tax levied on property owners this year to build the new elementary school in Plummer. The new school replaces the 72-year-old Lakeside Elementary School on U.S. 95 in Worley.
The tax increase to finance building the school was not approved by voters. The taxes are being levied on property owners by the Idaho Department of Education.
The Plummer-Worley School District is the first in the state to tap into Idaho's Safe Public School Cooperative Funding Program under Idaho Code 33-909.
The district became eligible to apply to the fund after the Idaho Division of Building Safety deemed the aging Worley school building a safety hazard in 2009.
Elementary students have been attending school in portables in Plummer since last year.
Voters rejected three bond measures put before them between 2006 and 2009 to build a new school to replace the unsafe facility, another criterion met by the district to be eligible for facilities financing through the state fund.
The district was required to give voters one last time to consider a bond to build a new school. That bond election took place in February and failed as well.
What taxpayers lost by rejecting the bond was local control of the project and its financing. The school is being built under state supervision, and district property owners are being charged a tax assessment by the state to repay the loan.
"The State Department of Education sets the tax rate based on the state-wide average from last year," Hoffman said. "That average is then passed onto the taxpayer."
For this year, that tax rate is $1.37 per $1,000 of taxable value. The rate will be set by the state each year, Hoffman said, but can never be lower than the original rate.
It can be higher.
Changes in actual construction costs and interest rates could affect the cost of the project and in turn, the tax rate and length of the loan from the state, Hoffman said.
The repayment period cannot exceed 20 years, but it can be less, according to Idaho Code 33-309.