OCR Text |
Show Critical school building needs results in tax levy increase To meet critical building needs in the Iron School District, Dis-trict, the boarl of education has increased the mill levy for the 1973-74 school year. At the present time the school levy for capital outlay purposes pur-poses is 12.5 mills. The levy approved by the board In a regular meeting held Monday, March 19, will be 17.5 mills or a 5 mill increase on taxes collected this coming November. Novem-ber. Many districts In Utah have capital outlay levies which exceed 18 mills Including Beaver District which has a levy of 18.74. This Increase, however, comes at a time when the state property tax for school purposes is likely to be decreased de-creased by 3 or more mills. The state legislature also approv-ed approv-ed a sales tax credit on in-come in-come tax which will likely be acted upon again in a special session of the legislature due to the fact that earlier legislature legis-lature approval occurred after midnight of the last day. The net results Is that taxes tax-es will be about the same next year as this year but that tax money which previously went to the state will now remain in Iron County and be used for critical school building needs. The levy Increase will enable en-able the district to bond much sooner for a new Cedar Junior High School and will enable occupancy of the new building build-ing in the fall of 1976. Without With-out the Increase a new Junior high could not be entered until un-til the fall of 1979. The pre-sent pre-sent Junior high Is a lire haz-ard, haz-ard, is educationally Inadequate Inade-quate and is rapidly deteriorating deterior-ating and thereby expensive to maintain. The mill Increase will finance fin-ance other critically needed projects. For example, due to rapid growth of population in Cedar City a major addition to an existing elementary school or a complete new elementary el-ementary school will be needed need-ed by 1977. Without the mill Increase, additional space for elementary students could not be provided until about 1985. Students must have a building build-ing In which to attend school. Other future projects made possible by the mill Increase Include new lights for the Parowan High Footlball Field, a new relocated bus igarage, a new dining room for the East Elementary School, and additional restrooms for the North Elementary School. The decision to raise the levy was made in the March board meeting because budgets bud-gets for the 1973-74 school year are now toeing made and would need to reflect the ad-ditional ad-ditional revenue resulting from the levy increase. The levy increase also steps-up the time table for bonding for the new Cedar Junior High and time Is needed for legal requirements preparatory for a bond issue. By law, funds received from tax levies for capital outlay purposes cannot be used for purposes other than construction construct-ion and remodeling of build-ing, build-ing, equipment purchases, and land purchases. Such funds cannot be used for salaries and other maintenance and operation purposes. |