PROPERTY OWNERS TO FACE TAX RISE

BENTON -- Scott County property owners will feel the sting of 1993's Senate Bill 380 when they receive their 1994 tax bills next month.

Tax rates in the county's seven school districts will increase between 51 and 75 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

The Scott City R-1 School District has the smallest increase of 51 cents to the minimum of $2.75 per $100 of assessed valuation mandated by the school tax issue.

The tax increase on a $50,000 Scott City house will amount to $48.45. Residential properties are assessed at 19 percent of their values.

The tax rate in the Scott Central R-5 School District near Morley will increase 52 cents. The district's $3.90 rate is the highest in the county, but it also has the smallest assessed valuation.

A farmer with 1,000 acres of top-grade farmland near Morley will pay $558 more in property taxes this year than last. Farmland is assessed according to its attributes and then valued at 12 percent of that figure.

Because the Oran tax rate is increasing 67 cents to $3.55, a business owner in Oran with a $100,000 building will pay $214 more in 1994 property taxes. Commercial properties are assessed at 32 percent of their values.

Chaffee R-2, Kelly R-4 near Benton, Sikeston R-6 and the Kelso C-7 school districts all will increase tax rates 75 cents this year.

Those school districts with rates above the mandated minimum of $2.75 typically have funds reserved in their tax levies for debt service.

In those districts with the 75-cent increase, property owners will pay these additional taxes:

-- on a $50,000 house, $71.25;

-- on 1,000 acres of top-grade farmland, $804.60; and

-- on a $100,000 commercial building, $240.

Total additional school taxes in the county for 1994 amount to more than $1.5 million. This amount doesn't include revenues school districts will receive from state-assessed railroads and utilities.

Scott Central R-5 will receive the smallest increase in local tax dollars with $48,480 more in 1994. The largest increase will be in the Sikeston R-6 School, which is expected to receive an additional $908,363.

The increases in the other five school districts range from $71,288 at Oran to $177,030 at Kelly.

The tax rate in the Kelso C-7 School District has expanded the most over the past two years with 75-cent increases in 1993 and 1994.

Due to Senate Bill 380's mandate, the district had to increase from $1.25 to $2 last year and then to $2.75 this year.

Kelso C-7 School District voters overwhelmingly approved the rate increase to $2.75 in April. The school board placed the issue on the ballot because of the uncertainty on litigation over Senate Bill 380 and the proposed Hancock II amendment.

Kelso Superintendent Darryl Sauer said the community showed its support for the school with the vote on the rate increase. He said the board believes it can set the tax rate to whatever is needed after litigation is settled.

The additional money has meant the Kelso district no longer is deficit spending. The district has had to dip into its reserves the previous three years.

The extra money also has enabled the Kelso district to hire a full-time and a part-time teacher in the past two school years. There are classroom teachers for each grade now, while in the past one or two teachers had to share a couple of grades.

With the additional money, the district is looking at upgrading its computer system.

"We want to help our students prepare for the 21st century," Sauer said. "We feel we need to push computer training."