East Sac County School Board Talks Taxes - August 16, 2010 East Sac County School Board Meeting

SAC CITY, IOWA – AUGUST 16, 2010

Following is the complete August 16, 2010 East Sac County School Board Meeting. Right now they do not have very much responsibility for guiding the district. As the July 1, 2011 changeover date approaches, they will gradually take on the full duties as the school’s only governing body.

Aside from fulfilling the statutory requirements of a governmental board, which Is included here for you to watch if you would like, the board discussed the intricacies of how they want to tax you. Most of the meeting is, in fact, an instructional piece conducted by the Business manager, John Kraft to bring the board members up to speed on the methods by which levies can be brought about.

Though no decisions were made, it is clear from following the conversation that the board members are either in favor of or not objecting at this time to the idea of raising the amount of taxes you pay to support the school.

It also seems clear, though no official vote was taken, that the board members are either in favor of or not objecting at this time to allowing the public to vote to be levied, rather than simply imposing a levy upon it.

A new, (to Sac City voters,) way of taxing district residents was discussed called an income surcharge. An income surcharge is what it sounds like, it spreads the tax burden out from just property owners to all residents by taking money from even non-property owners.

If you are interested in knowing as much as the school board members you are invited to watch the videos and follow along with the notes and documentation.



1. Call to order.
2. Instructions for participation.
3. Approval of Agenda.
4. Approval of Minutes of previous meeting.


5. Board reviews Mission Statement
- What does “Empowering all students” mean?
-- Board decides to discuss this at length during Joint Board meeting later that evening.
6. Superintendent report deferred until joint meeting later that evening.
7. Board reviews collective bargaining/master contract process.
- Wall Lake View Auburn contract will be the starting point.
- To begin possibly in September or October.
-- It seems to be Dr. Fiene’s wish that the process isn’t adversarial.
- Business manager claims that over half of the articles will go “real fast” and hopes to be discussing schedule A issues by Christmas.
- Members of this board are welcome to sit in on those negotiations.


8. Review of district levies.
- This is the beginning discussion to get the board up to speed on the current levies.
- Both districts are debt free.
- Both districts are in the Same AEA so there will be no changes.
-- Out district ID number is 6741.
- There is a $30 to $40 difference in cost per pupil, and a new weighted average will be assigned.


- This document shows that the total tax rate for each district is right around $12 bringing in a total of 3.4 million dollars (blue)
-- Business manager guesses that is the district were combined right now the tax rate would be close to in the middle at around $11.95
- in this document, “ISL” = instructional Support Levy.
-- It generates another $240K for WLVA and adds $0.87 to the property tax (green)
--ISL can be used for anything for which the general fund levy is used, (salaries, textbooks, instructional supplies, etc.)
--It cannot be used for special Ed or PPEL type projects


- Both the voted PPEL (pink) and the ISL (green) run out at the end of the year and will have to be re-authorized.

- Starting with the voted PPEL, the valuation in the Sac district is about $110M and WLVA district is about $175M, about $285M in valuation total. The voted PPEL levy can be anywhere from $0.00 to $1.33 per 1000. (If the district voted in $1.00 even, it would generate $285,000.00 in revenue for the new district.)
-- Without utilizing the Voted PPEL, the board can still impose the non-voted PPEL levy at $0.33 per thousand valuation and generate $90,000.00ish.
--Voted PPEL can be attached to property tax only or property tax and income surtax.
--- How this is levied would be in the wording at the ballot.
--- If the levy is authorized by vote, the school is not required to use it.
---- As an example, Sac is authorized to levy for ISL but does not.
- Sac has never used the income surcharge, they have always used the property tax. It is something that voters have never dealt with.
-- The income surcharge is a method of shifting some of the tax burden to people that live in the community but are not property owners, (renters).






Iowa PPEL and ISL Code

- The new district could probably generate up to $350,000
- The Instructional support levy does not have to be voted upon, but the superintendent advised to use a vote to avoid the perception that the board is trying to ram a tax through.
-- Brotherton recommends considering levies.
- Superintendent commends both districts for their past ability to anticipate enrollment.


- What is the Amana Library fund?
- The fund balance and predicted fund balance at the end of the year will be reviewed at the October meet.


9. No new business.
10. No Personnel issues.
11. Suggested agenda items for next meeting.
- Setting board terms?
12. Adjournment.




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