From the Richmond Palladium-Item:
A few members of the Richmond Community Schools Board of School Trustees had questions and concerns about asking taxpayers to fund future capital projects in the system with an $8 million bond.
RCS might be on the verge of borrowing the money to pay for technology upgrades and renovations and updates to as many as five schools, and board members asked for the meeting Monday to learn more about the projects first.
Included on the list was a project that included the addition of four classrooms at Charles Elementary as well as adding parking spaces and additional drives for buses and cars to pick up children.
Everyone agreed that the traffic issue was necessary in the interest of student safety, but board member Jeff Slifer commented during the meeting that there were 254 open seats in grades K-4 in the system and said he would have a difficult time asking taxpayers to fund the addition with so many seats available and a recent trend of declining enrollment.
RCS Superintendent Allen Bourff has said borrowing the funds would not raise RCS’ tax rate, which currently sits at 64 cents per $100 assessed valuation. That’s because if the money is borrowed, it won’t happen until July 2013 when a bond to pay for the Test Intermediate School renovation comes off the books. RCS still owes $1.43 million, including interest payments, on that bond, which was issued in 2003.
If the school district decides not to borrow the $8 million, taxpayers would see a drop in their rates once the bond for the Test project is paid off. The rate would drop to 54 cents per $100 assessed valuation, meaning that an individual paying taxes on a home with $100,000 in assessed valuation would save about $100 a year.
Administration members and some board members voiced concerns about not borrowing the money to pay for the projects, stating that it is easier to keep the rates constant than it would be to allow the rate to drop and ask taxpayers to pony up for a raise in taxes at a later date.
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See the full article here:
http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012312100020
