Meridian CUSD 223 Board of Education approves tax levy

STILLMAN VALLEY – At the December Meridian CUSD 223 Board of Education meeting the tax levy for next year was approved unanimously. Prior to the adoption of the levy, two presentations had been given at different public meetings and a voice-over PowerPoint presentation was made available to the public via the district’s Facebook page in order to increase community awareness.

“There are three major reasons for sharing the information multiple times in multiple ways. First, this directly impacts our community and their personal finances. Next, the logistics of creating a levy for a school district is a difficult concept to understand for someone without direct experience with school finance. Lastly, the mandatory posting in the paper can be confusing and misleading for our community members,” said Superintendent PJ Caposey

Caposey also mentioned that there is a desire at the Board and administrative level to continue to build trust between the community and school. In November, the Meridian CUSD community voted to approve a .70 percent referendum to increase school funding with a 57 percent majority.

Board of Education President John Smith added, “During the referendum we were very clear that the intent was not to raise taxes beyond the additional burden created by the referendum – if the assessors’ estimates are accurate we will have adhered to that assurance.”

At the BOE meeting, it was announced that if there is a 1.3 percent decrease in total EAV as expected, that the tax rate for next year from the schools will be 5.99 percent compared to 5.29 percent last year.