Cedar Rapids, College Community school boards to approve tax levy rates tonight

Two local school boards will approve the 2010-11 tax levy rate and school budgets tonight.

The Cedar Rapids school board will have a public hearing to discuss its proposed levy rate - $15.67 per $1,000 taxable valuation - at 5 p.m. Board members gave early approval to the rate with the understanding that the final amount would likely decrease.

By law, a school district can't increase a levy after it is published. However, it can lower the levy.

Superintendent Dave Benson will recommend to school board members that the insurance money to be credited to the district's general fund - money that was embezzled by former accounting clerk Jamie May - be used for property tax relief.

“It would probably be in the neighborhood of a 10-cent reduction (in the) rate,” Benson said at a news conference earlier this month.

Board members also will discuss the embezzlement case. May, 42, was fired from the district last fall while under suspicion of stealing money from the district. A State Auditor's Report found that May took nearly $600,000 from the district between 2002 through 2009.

She died from complications of breast cancer in November.

Benson said he will look toward the school board for guidance in how to begin rebuilding community trust in the district. The district has already tightened internal controls, and hired an accounting supervisor and internal auditor.

The College Community school board will have a public hearing on its proposed levy rate at 7:30 p.m.

The new rate - $17.20 per $1,000 taxable valuation - is a penny less than the current levy.

Increases in property value favored the district. Also, a number of former tax increment financing valuations rolled onto the regular valuation, resulting in more money for the district.

The proposed rate is 12 cents per $1,000 less than what district taxpayers paid three years ago. Still, because of a change in the state residential rollback, homeowners will see an increase in property taxes. The owner of a $100,000 home now pays $784 in property taxes; that will increase to $807 next fiscal year.

All other property classifications will realize the levy decrease in the school portion of the tax bill.