Sean C. Morgan
The aquatics committee agreed Monday night to recommend that the District 55 School Board seek a renewal of the local option levy that funds the community pool at Sweet Home High School.
Members of the committee emphasized that a local option levy through the School District will not impact police or library services at all.
The committee considered whether to raise the levy by 1 or 2 cents but chose to pursue the current rate, 32 cents per $1,000 of property value. The committee also agreed to ask the School Board to propose a five-year levy on the May ballot.
The pool operates on a two-year local option levy that took effect on July 1, 2012 and will expire on June 30.
If the School Board agrees, it has until early next year to submit paperwork for the election. Voters within the boundaries of School District 55 may vote.
Members of the committee attending Monday’s meeting included Dawn Levy, Pam Barbee, Katie Kole, Donna Short, Linda Rummel, Jim Yon, Ken Bronson, Eric Markell, Bruce Davis, Stefanie Gatchell and Susan Couch. Also attending the meeting were Mike E. Adams and Leena Ellis from the School Board; Kevin Strong, School District business manager; Gretchen Daugherty, School District aquatics director; and Craig Martin, city manager.
Property tax compression drove the committee to one option, continuing a local option levy through the School District.
Strong suggested three other options, with the pool operated by the School District, the city or an aquatics district.
The formation of an aquatics district and a permanent tax rate for the pool would cause compression to increase on general government local option levies, resulting in cuts in public safety, Strong said.
Those include local option levies for the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, the Veterans Home, the Sweet Home Police Department and the Sweet Home Public Library.
The disadvantage is really all about compression, Strong said.
As far as the School District operating the pool, it was on a list of potential cuts with the School District, which prompted the formation of the aquatics committee and the passage of a local option levy in the first place.
The city would have to find the cash somewhere within its budget, while its permanent tax rate is $1.41, Martin said. That would mean the pool would impact the city’s services funded by local option levies anyway. Compression this year is $862,000 for the Police Department, about 35 percent of the tax on assessed value. The library compression is at $110,000, also about 35 percent of the tax compared to assessed value.
The compression at issue is caused by property tax limitations compared to real market value. After calculating property taxes using assessed values, assigned by formula, the property tax is compared to real market value. Anything above $10 per $1,000 of value for general government and $5 per $1,000 for education is not assessed against individual properties. Public officials call this compression.
Local option levies, which are temporary but renewable, are reduced to zero first when a property is in compression. Only after this are permanent rates affected. An aquatics district would carry a permanent rate, which means police and library funding would be reduced by compression before pool funding.
A local option levy through the School District falls under the $5 education limit and affects only itself. Compression must reduce it before reducing the three permanent rates in the Sweet Home area, including the School District, Linn-Benton Community College and the Linn-Benton-Lincoln Education Service District. There are no other education local option levies in the Sweet Home area.
Under the School District’s authority, the local option levy has no impact at all on the city’s or county’s local option levies.
Davis said there was some confusion, even among city employees, about this last election, May 2012. Some people believed that voting yes would result in staffing reductions in the Police Department. He wanted to emphasize and make it clear that this cannot happen under the current property tax system.
The current local option levy raised a little less than $100,000 for 2012-13, and it has raised some $102,000 for the 2013-14 fiscal year, Strong said. Each penny raises about $3,000.
The district had been looking for $90,000 to $100,000, Strong said. The district continues to contribute the amount it would have to pay anyway, about $30,000, to cut the pool service and put it in mothballs.
The total cost of the pool service is around $150,000 and is funded by the levy, fees and the School District.
Members suggested raising the tax by 1 or 2 cents to help pay for projects during the next five years if necessary.
“I personally feel we should stay the same,” Davis said. “It’s going to be easier to pitch.”
The committee agreed unanimously to send the recommendation to the board. The committee will present is recommendation to the board during its regular meeting on Nov. 4.