Three school levy options: flat; 5 cents less; 10 cents less

The Vandalia Board of Education will have three options when it votes on a new tax levy.
Those three options, Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Garrison said, include approving a flat levy, one that’s the same as last year, when the board approved a 25-cent reduction in the overall tax levy.
A second option is to lower the levy by another 5 cents, and a third option is a 10-cent reduction.
Board members discussed those options for the first time on Tuesday, after members of the finance committee discussed it prior to the regular board meeting.
Last year, the board approved an aggregate total of $4,473,757, a decrease of $87,292 from the previous levy.
The board took that action on a 25-cent reduction after pledging to do so if residents approved a 1-cent sales tax for schools in the county.
“One of the conversations is to keep the reduction in place of the 25 cents and to keep the tax rate flat,” Garrison said.
“The rationale behind that is that the district did reduce the levy (last year), so that equals $280,000 we did not levy for,” she said.
Garrison said that the revenue from the sales tax “is just now coming in,” and that the district should receive the July revenue, about $60,000, from that tax in November.
With just that one point of reference, she said, the district cannot predict a trend with sales tax revenue.
Of that sales tax revenue, Garrison said, 50 percent is “already committed to a levy reduction, the other 50 percent we will need for bond abatement.
“So, keeping it flat keeps us in that middle ground,” she said.
Garrison then asked board members to voice their thoughts on the new levy.
Ryan Lewis said, “I’m not opposed to a five- or 10-cent decrease in the levy, as another show of good faith, but the long term is looking out for the taxpayer.
“And, if we can take the additional monies from the sales tax and/or other sources potentially in the future, paying off that (bond) debt early, there might be a situation where we have that paid off a year earlier or two years earlier.
“Then, that’s two years earlier that we cannot charge the taxpayer that dollar and 20 or whatever cents,” Lewis said.
“I’m looking long-term. I’m not opposed to a five- or 10-cent reduction … and I don’t want to put us in a bind next year, either.
“We’re kind of flying blind for the rest of the year in terms of where we’re going to end up with the sales tax revenue,” Lewis said.
Kevin Satterthwaite said he supported keeping the levy flat.
“I think we are certainly making, I started to say a good-faith gesture, but it’s more than that – we’re making a change,” Satterthwaite said.
“Looking at long-term, like Ryan said, I think that leaving it flat is the conservative move, with some of the unforeseen tax incomes.
“We can always come back and adjust it later on,” he said. “To find out that we strapped ourselves too much, and I don’t think we’re going to do that, but I would vote to leave it flat for now.”
Joe Lawson said, “I think my long-term look is a little different than yours, Ryan.
“We made a commitment to reduce the tax levy. We did it one year, (and) I think it would be in good faith to the taxpayers to do it a little bit for next year as a long-term gesture of good faith,” Lawson said.
“I understand that as far as the sales tax money replacing what we’re reducing in the levy is an unknown, and yet, it’s not a totally unknown.
“I believe that nickel, 10-cent reduction probably won’t strap us, and if we don’t do anything the next year, then that’s OK,” Lawson said.
“I don’t want to go the full quarter, because of the unknown,” he said. “But, I think we’re still operating on a good-faith gesture.
“I just want to continue operating with good faith as far as our pledges – you pass the referendum, we’re lowering your tax levy,” Lawson said.
“We did that before the levy was passed in good faith, so I see one more year as extending our good faith,” he said.
The board is scheduled to take a tentative vote on the levy at its November meeting, then on final approval in December.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting:
• The board approved the resignation of Nichole Robbins, a teacher’s aide at Vandalia Elementary School, and the hiring of Megan Goodman as a junior high home-school liaison and Renee Sapp as a teacher’s aide.
• Garrison offered the reminder that the board has voted to amend this year’s school calendar so that students will not be in attendance on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
• Garrison suggested that certain items for board meetings be included in a consent agenda, with one vote for multiple items, and board members supported that action.