School tax rate clarification

This comes in response to your Sept. 9 article, "Cape school district amends its tax rate." The first sentence of the article, along with a quote from the superintendent of the Cape Girardeau schools, says erroneous forms from the state auditor caused the board to call a special meeting to amend its 2013-2014 tax rate.

We would like to provide your readers with a more complete set of facts.

The state auditor's office is charged with helping local political subdivisions, like the Cape Girardeau school system, with the forms associated with preparing the district's tax rate. We sent two emails to the school district on Aug. 14. The second email corrected an error we made in the first. The district used the incorrect data when setting its tax rate at the Aug. 26 meeting. It subsequently corrected the rate at the Sept. 5 meeting.

The Cape county clerk did see the discrepancy because she had access to the correct information from the auditor's office and rightfully notified the school, just as our office did. We work closely with officials at the local level charged with setting their tax rates and work diligently to correct any errors we see in the process.

We appreciate this opportunity to clarify the record.

HARRY OTTO, deputy Missouri state auditor,

Cape Girardeau