The Jemez Mountain School District will ask voters Feb. 3 to keep in place another six years a property tax administrators say is needed to keep aging schools in shape.
Jemez Mountain is the only Rio Arriba County school district planning to include a two-mil levy question on school board election ballots early next year. If passed, the measure would allow the District to levy property taxes from 2009 to 2014.
The District currently has a two-mil levy in place, which means if voters approve the ballot measure, property owners would continue paying a tax of $2 for every $1,000 of their property’s taxable value. A home with a $40,000 taxable value, for example, pays $80 a year under the levy.
If approved, the levy would bring the District $1.56 million a year, according to A.L. Clemmons, vice president of George K. Baum, the company that advises the District on bond and tax issues.
Superintendent Adan Delgado said the District is not earmarking levy revenues for any major projects in particular, but rather to fund maintenance and repairs, especially in its three older elementary schools.
Because District voters have not approved a bond measure since 1997, Jemez Mountain has been slow to replace its older schools with newer facilities. Coronado Middle and High School was partially rebuilt in 1997 and a new Lybrook Elementary facility was completed last year. But Lindrith Area Heritage Charter School and Gallina and Coyote elementary schools are all 40 or more years old, Delgado said.
“The trade-off is a lot of maintenance costs,” Delgado said. “And that’s ok, as long as we have the funding in place to fund that maintenance.”
For example, a recent inspection by the County Fire Marshal’s office determined the Lindrith charter school needs a new kitchen fire suppression system, Delgado said.
The state Public School Capital Improvements Act allows school districts to assess a property tax for periods of up to six years. School districts can use tax revenues for construction, maintenance, renovations and purchasing land, equipment, computers, software and vehicles for taking students to extracurricular activities.
If the levy passes, the District would also receive an additional $11,800 a year in state matching funds under the Act, Clemmons said. District voters are currently paying off $2.73 million in outstanding debt from the 1997 bond and $700,000 from technology bonds the District sold in July, Clemmons said. Technology bonds, which are used to purchase computer equipment, do not require voter approval.