Voters in Shelby County last week approved 30 mills in property taxes for public schools. A mill is $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value.
The taxes were approved by an average of 63.7% of the votes in five separate ballot questions to comprise the 30 mills. All taxes were existing levies due to expire in six years.
Officials from the Shelby County School Board said they needed a 30-year extension of the five millage rates in order to leverage a portion of the tax with bonds to build additional schools and classrooms to accommodate growth in student enrollment.
The the taxes generate $74.9 million, or 28%, of the district’s annual budget, and go toward fund programs, personnel, operations, and capital improvements. The district also received revenue from sales taxes.
As of Sept. 30, the district had approximately $160 million of outstanding warrants, which are similar to bonds. Some of the debt is secured by local sales and property taxes, while some is backed by state funds allocated to the county and issued through a pool program.
The district last sold $68 million of capital outlay school warrants in March 2009 to refund some warrants and restructure variable-rate debt into fixed rate as well as fund a $1.1 million swap termination fee, Standard & Poor’s said.
The warrants received underlying ratings of A1 by Moody’s Investors Service and A by Standard & Poor’s. They were insured by Assured Guaranty Corp.
