By BETHANY BLITZ

Staff Writer

The Lakeland Joint School District board voted 5-0 at its meeting last Thursday night to bring two separate levies to voters in March, both of which will raise local tax rates.

“During the recession, things were deferred for a year or two,” board member Brian Casey said. “Now that we’re coming out of [the recession], we want to start addressing those issues.”

The first levy is a two-year supplemental levy for $8,990,534 per year. The total of $17,981,068 will help the district pay for instructional and extracurricular costs.

A supplemental levy is a funding mechanism, built into the state education code, that allows Idaho school districts to ask voters to agree to pay local property taxes in addition to state funding the districts already receive. The money can be used for operations and general maintenance, but not for capital expenses.

Lakeland’s proposed supplemental levy will replace a $5.3 million levy expiring at the end of June. If approved, it is estimated the new levy will raise the local tax rate from $2.51 per month per $1,000 of taxable assessed property value to $3.50 per month. The owner of a $180,000 home, after the homeowner’s exemption is applied, is expected to pay an additional $10.62 per month if the supplemental levy is approved.

The second levy the Lakeland School District is bringing to voters is a five-year plant facility levy for $1,146,520 per year — a total of $5,732,600 — to help the district pay for building maintenance, bus replacement and technology infrastructure.

Plant facility levies, also built into state education code, allow districts to ask voters for local property taxes to be used to pay for new construction, significant maintenance and remodeling projects.

The proposed plant facility levy is an increase from the district’s current five-year levy for $800,000 per year, which expires this year.

The plant facility levy, should it pass, would increase local tax rates by 11 cents per month for each $1,000 taxable assessed value. The current tax rate is $0.33 per month for each $1,000 of taxable assessed value, the lavy would increase it to $0.44 per month.

The district estimated the cost per month for someone with a $180,000 home and a homeowner’s tax exemption, would go up by $0.97 per month due to the plant facility levy.

With current tax rates, the same homeowner is paying $2.45 per month, but that would go up to $3.42 per month with the proposed plant facility levy.

Lakeland School District Superintendent Becky Meyer said the district is in a unique position of needing to renew both its levies at the same time.

She added she wasn’t concerned that raising the tax rates might hurt the chances of the levies passing.

“Our voters are passionate and really supportive of our district,” she said. “Passage rates shows the community’s support for both levies, historically.”

The supplemental levy will be used to implement full-day kindergarten in the district’s elementary schools, add some classified staff positions such as school resource officers in the district’s county schools, hire athletic trainers for the high schools and repairing instruments for band and orchestra programs.

The plant facility levy will be used to better the district’s technology infrastructure — like providing enough computing devices so each student can use their own in class — to maintain the district’s bus fleet, repair roofs and resurface the high school track.

“Our entire leadership is excited about this opportunity to take this to the voters and explain to them how this will continue our academic excellence,” Meyer said.