The Appleton Area School District has announced a new projected cost to taxpayers if the referendum is passed next month. They had originally estimated that it would cause property taxes to go up by $39 per $100,000 worth of property. They are now estimating that, as a result of state aid to the District being increased, property values increasing, and the District paying down debt sooner than expected, the projected burden to taxpayers has now dropped to $4 per $100,000 worth of property.
The Post Crescent has written a story about it. You can also view the District’s announcement and a video from Superintendent Greg Hartjes explaining the reasons behind the decrease in costs on the AASD website.
I both read the Post Crescent article and watched the video, but it’s not clear to me if the projected costs would increase if, in future years, state aid were to be reduced, which seems like something voters might want to keep in mind.
Also not noted in either the Post Crescent article or the announcement from the District is the fact that back in September of last year, then Chief Financial Officer Hartjes reported to the Board of Education that if the referendum did not pass property taxes would decrease by $100 per $100,000 worth of property. It’s not clear to me how or if the changes in state aid, property values, and the District having paid down debt earlier than expected would affect the projected tax decrease if the referendum did not pass.
The videos were interesting, especially as there’s a whole series of them and they were not promoted anyplace else that I have seen other than here and the P-C – not even to families in their (somewhat) weekly email.
I was surprised at the amount of funding that comes from the fed and state, and there was no mention of cost overruns (which always happens) and inflation (which is happening).
I am also surprised about the age of all of the buildings – the few I have been in, despite being able to collect Social Security, are actually well-maintained. What I would be concerned with is the physical plant – heat, etc. – of them. The future will certainly warrant replacements for many of these facilities.