R-I approves 2019 property tax rate

The Poplar Bluff R-I school board approved a change to the tax levy at it’s monthly meeting Thursday night.

Superintendent Dr. Scott Dill said the board approved a slight increase of $0.0176 for the 2019 year with an approved tax rate of $3.6679 per $100 of assessed valuation.

According to board documents, the 2018 assessed valuation was $472,203,926, but for the 2019 assessed valuation it’s projected to be $479,995,619. This is an increase of $7,791,693.

The board approved a split for how much of that would go into each of four funds.

The general fund will receive the bulk of it at $2.75, which Dill said is the lowest amount that can be put into that fund. The district does not keep a teacher fund, he said, which means that none of the tax money would go into it. The debt service fund will receive $0.180, which helps the district make debt payments.

The last fund is the capital projects fund, Dill said, which will receive $0.73790, and that was the area that saw the change from last year, Dill said. This pool of money is what helps pays for work, construction or repair work around the schools. For instance, Dill said, money from that pool is paying for the Early Education Center that is currently under construction.

The board approved a voluntary rollback, Dill said, which allowed the capital project’s amount to be less than the $0.80 that voters approved in a levy tax for building projects concluded in 2016, Dill said.

“We’re only going to take what we need,” Dill said. “As a taxpayer myself, I’m very cognizant of what we ask from the community. We don’t want to ask for more than we need to pay the bills.”

The estimated total revenue, according to board documents, is $17,605,758.