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Vallivue school district puts new bond and renewed levy up for vote

Local property taxes will not increase or decrease as result of the vote according to Vallivue School District spokesperson Joe Palmer.

CALDWELL, Idaho — The Vallivue School has to prepare for 12,000 new homes slated for constriction in their district over the next few years, according to Vallivue's Director of State and Federal Programs Joey Palmer.

It's part of the reason Vallivue SD is proposing a levy renewal on the March 8 ballot.

The $4.5 million levy contributes to the district's general funding for teachers, staff, and any school activity not funded through state dollars. The proposed levy lasts from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2024.

The proposed levy replaces an expiring levy of the same value and length. The district has had a supplemental levy of some sort for the last 34 years according to Palmer.

"If the supplemental levy is not renewed, we would have to be looking at cutting staff. We would have to look at getting rid of some learning programs. Perhaps some students would have to pay to play sports. All sorts of things would have to go on the cutting board," Palmer said.

Breaking down the levy cost on an induvial property tax evaluation, every $100,000 in assessed property value pays a $77 tax.

According to Palmer, a denial of the levy will not result in property tax savings for patrons in the district. The district would collect the same amount of money; however, the money would be used to pay down already existing bonds at a faster rate.

Vallivue recently refinanced preexisting bonds resulting in $15 million savings in interest payments. This frees the district to propose another bond, also on the March 8 ballot, to build two new elementary schools.

"This is a bond we wanted to share with our patrons in 2019, but we thought let's keep trying to mitigate the growth and get our middle school alleviated because they were suffering the worst at the time," Palmer said. "Now our elementary schools are over capacity, our portable buildings are over capacity and we're not doing this to keep up with the growth, we're doing this to catch up with the growth."

The $55 million bond is supplemented in part by state dollars. After interest, taxpayers are burdened with $49.8 million over the 20-year life of the bond.

Property owners should expect to pay $42 per $100,000 in assessed property value.

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