Colorado City schools tax hike too high
 
IN OUR VIEW
The Spectrum
 
A combination of budget cuts and hefty expenses has prompted a 152 percent property tax increase on the Colorado City School District's portion of property taxes for homes within its boundaries.

At a meeting last week, the school board increased the property taxes from $3.55 per $100 of assessed value to $8.94 per $100. The funds will help pay for maintenance and operations.

District officials blame Arizona officials, who cut the district's allocation of money because of the rapid decrease in enrollment. The district had 991 students in the 1999-2000 school year, but after a decree from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for families to pull their children from public schools, enrollment plummeted to 359 students in 2000-01 and has remained about the same since.

To make up the difference, the district has to raise money, and that means taxes have to be raised.

Or do they?

When businesses run short on cash, they make appropriate cuts to expense budgets.

This way, they save money until they weather the difficult times and then reinvest and expand the business.

The Colorado City district has made cuts, but it hasn't made the kinds of alterations that would allow for a smaller tax increase. For example, the school district has about 100 staff members for about 350 students, or one staff member for 3.5 students. Not all of those staff members are teachers.

For comparison, the Washington County School District has about 2,000 staff members for 21,000 students, or one staff member for 10.5 students. Again, not all are teachers.

Colorado City also has to pay for a Cessna 210 airplane, which has ongoing maintenance and fuel costs. Such a luxury isn't warranted for a cash-strapped district.

Nobody wants to see children's education suffer. But there appears to be room for the Colorado City district to make cuts that would enable it to reduce the tax burden on citizens without doing much harm to the education system as a whole.

The board should re-evaluate the situation and make the appropriate cuts. Does it need as many staff members? Does it need an airplane?

Probably not more than families living in the district boundaries need the reduced tax burden.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published August 2, 2004
 
Back