With old debts paid, taxes could be lower

With the debts from the mammoth construction projects of the 1980s paid, local taxpayers might get a smidgen of relief as a result.
That is, unless school board members decide to raise the millage rate and ask residents to pay more in property taxes.
They are expected to decide that next month.
Two decades ago, the school district had to build several new buildings, including a new Hernando High School, among other capital projects. Now that the final $3.5 million has been paid from those projects, the millage rate could drop by more than one-tenth of a mill compared to last year, said Denise Coit, the supervisor of accounting for the district.
"The bottom line is that it's going to go down," she said.
She surmised the board would not raise the millage rate. Some of them already have said publicly they would not support any tax increase given the current economic crisis.
"It's good timing," said Superintendent Wayne Alexander of the possible millage decrease. "We're very fortunate that the timing has worked out for that."
He credited former Chief Executive Officer Debbie Bruggink for recognizing the "trends and conditions" of the state and by adding additional revenues to "pay down all of those debts," he said.
Based on preliminary estimates, the board learned last week that the millage rate for 2009-10 could be 7.6584, down from 7.779 a year earlier.
One mill equals one dollar for every $1,000 of taxable property value.
The Hernando County Property Appraiser's Office will submit its final taxable revenue to the school district in early July.
The total property tax revenue is estimated to be $10.2 billion, nearly $1.2 billion less than a year earlier.
That, in addition to a decline in state funding, was expected to lead to a possible tax increase, even before the school board voted on whether to raise the millage rage by .25.
Due to the paid off debt, and perhaps partially due to President Barack Obama's stimulus money, local taxpayers are looking at possibly fewer taxes for the school district.
If the board does vote for the increase, then property owners would face a millage of 7.9084, an increase of nearly one and one-third mills, Coit said.