TAX RATES STABLE FOR MOST DISTRICTS

School tax levies will remain largely the same as in previous years for four Cape Girardeau County school districts.

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education will decide its tax rate for the coming year after a tax-rate hearing at 6 p.m. today. The meeting will be held at the board office, 61 N. Clark, and is open to the public.

The hearing will be followed at 6:30 p.m. by a special board meeting to approve a grant application and a design change to the Vocational Career Center.

Taxpayers in Jackson, Delta and Oak Ridge school districts will see no change in their school-related taxes this year.

The 1999 adjusted tax rate for Delta schools is $3.31 per $100 assessed valuation, while Oak Ridge patrons will continue to pay $3.35 per $100 assessed valuation.

Since 1993, Jackson property owners have been required to pay $3.21 per assessed valuation.

"We kept the debt service at 46 cents because that's what we told the voters we would try to maintain when we won the last bond issue," said Dr. Terry Gibbons, assistant superintendent. "That's just the way we thought we should do it."

The school tax levy will be reduced this year for those living in Nell Holcomb School District. Patrons will be assessed $3.10 per $100 assessed valuation, a 7-cent decrease from last year.

Superintendent David Fuemmeler said the tax-rate decrease was possible "mainly because of the Prop C rollback.

"A number of districts have gone with the Prop C rollback waiver, but we haven't chosen to do that," Fuemmeler said.

In 1983, Missouri voters approved Proposition C, a 1-cent sales tax for education. School districts were required to use 50 percent of the revenue collected from the tax to reduce local property values.

When lawmakers redefined school funding in 1993 with Senate Bill 380, districts that maintained the minimum levy of $2.75 were allowed to ask voters for a waiver of the Proposition C rollback. If voters refused to grant the waiver, the board of education could vote to set the levy at $2.75.

State law requires that tax levies are set before Sept. 1 of each year. Boards of education must hold a public tax-rate hearing prior to setting levies in order to hear opinions of patrons and show proof if necessary why a higher tax levy is needed.

Area school officials said few people ever attend tax rate hearings. The reasons behind the low attendance were unclear, but one factor could be people incorrectly assume personal property taxes collected as revenue for school districts are only adjusted with voter approval.

In fact, voter-approval is required only when school districts want to accomplish special projects that will create additional debt.

Otherwise, school officials can adjust tax rates by following a strict formula that takes into account revenue received in the previous year, estimated revenue for the coming year, enrollment shifts and the consumer price index.

"We have to follow what was recommended by the state office," said Delta superintendent Tom Allen. "We can't go above that ceiling."