PROPERTY VALUES HELP SCHOOL DISTRICT

Reassessment of property values in Cape Girardeau will mean a slight increase in local school tax revenue. But revenue growth could be significant if coupled with a tax-levy increase voters will consider Aug. 7.

Voters will be asked to approve a 58-cent increase in the operating tax levy to raise just over $19 million over five years for increased operating expenses and salary increases for teachers and other staff. The measure requires a simple majority for passage.

It is also a reassessment year, a biennial event in Missouri, when county assessors calculate values of agricultural, commercial and residential property.

Cape Girardeau property owners will see an average 6.6 percent hike in assessed valuation. But the school district won't receive a similar windfall because the state places a 3 percent cap on revenue above what the district could have levied last year before taking a voluntary rollback.

This means that $379,071 is the maximum the district could receive of a projected $931,700 in local revenue that would be collected at the current tax levy of $3.41 per $100 assessed valuation. The amount includes a small amount of revenue from new construction.

Tax levy vote

But if voters approve the tax levy increase, that increase plus the 3 percent cap would mean about $3,487,000 in new revenue, about 11.6 percent of the district's $30 million annual budget.

Cape Girardeau schools superintendent Dan Steska said the operating tax increase and reassessment growth would help make up for money the district has bypassed by maintaining a fixed tax levy while completing building upgrades over the past five years.

District revenue has been outpaced by cost-of-living increases by about $30,000 every year since 1997, when the school board pledged to hold the tax levy at $3.41 until it completed an overhaul of all district facilities.

The final project, construction of a new high school, got under way last spring and should be completed by fall 2002.

"It's been recommended by various groups in the community that we no longer take that rollback because we've been losing ground," Steska said. "We did that to keep the promise, but you can't do that forever.".