Anticipated increase in property values should lead to lower tax rate for Highland schools

This year’s tax levy for the Highland District 5 schools will anticipate about 9% in growth in property assessments from last year, which may lower the tax rate for residents.

The levy is set at an 1% increase to allow some cushion in case the growth varies, but finance director Mari Nikola anticipates the increase at 8.5% to 9.5%. Last year, she said, county officials estimated increases of 1.98% and Highland ended up at 8.61%. Two years ago they estimated 2.48% and they finished at 4.5%.

The total levy is set at $19.9 million, including $12.7 million for the education fund and $2.7 million for operations and maintenance.

The rest of the funds are divided between transportation, working cash, retirement and Social Security, special education, fire prevention and other smaller funds.

That means a projected tax rate of $4.42 per $100,000 of estimated assessed value if Highland sees the full 11% increase. That’s almost a full 10 cents lower than last year’s rate of $4.51 per $100,000, and a significant drop from 2015’s $4.89 rate.

The tax rate has dropped every year for nearly a decade, driven largely by increased property values each year since 2013.

“The EAV increase is positive financial growth for the district,” said Highland Superintendent Mike Sutton. “With the inflationary pressures on school districts and salary expectations growing, this growth in revenue will assist Highland CUSD No. 5 in meeting the increased costs of providing a quality education program for all students.”

As the levy is increasing more than 5% over the previous year, Highland was required to post notice in local newspapers and hold a public hearing in December.

In other news, Highland received a $2,300 grant from the state for its school libraries. Assistant superintendent Derek Hacke said the amount was not quite large enough for significant changes in the library collection, but will be used as a “weed and feed.”

“Our librarian removes books that are not circulating well and replaces them with new titles,” Hacke said. “She’s expecting to add a total of approximately 150 new (books) dispersed between the district’s six libraries.”

Further details of the libraries’ additions were not available.