Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct that the school district has not added new square footage in the form of new buildings since the 1990s.
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Idaho Falls School District 91 officials have released information on how the proposed $250 million bond will affect taxes within the district.
The district’s proposed bond is estimated to cost $233 per $100,000 of net taxable property value, a $100 increase per $100,000 over what patrons are paying on the district’s outstanding bonds, District 91’s website said.
The district’s board of trustees voted in June to pay off the outstanding bonds in 2023. Should voters approve the measure, the current bond obligations will drop off tax notices before the new bond levy will appear.
District officials believe that the district most likely wouldn’t sell all the bonds at the same time, costing patrons less than the amount stated on the ballot for the first few years, after the initial bonds are issued and before all are released, the website said.
Officials feel they have done all they can to make the bond cost the least amount possible without sacrificing the needs of the students, said Paul Haacke, trustee for District 91. Using money from the district’s bond savings account to pay off its $53 million bond from 2012 next year the district is saving taxpayers millions in interest over time. Other savings will be found in using floor plans from older elementary schools for new ones, getting rid of that cost and taking advantage of current building space. The district is not tearing down any old schools, but building new schools to combat higher registration and fixing the schools they already have.
Haacke said the necessity for the bond is not going away.
“These absolutely necessary costs are really just getting more and more expensive,” Haacke said. “When we tried to pass our last bond, a few of these same projects would have cost the community roughly $110 million and now for those same projects we are having to collect almost $200 million. My question for taxpayers is how much do you want to pay for these schools because the price is not going down and neither is the need.”
District 91 has not added new square footage in the form of new buildings since the 1990s, with its last new construction in 2012 being used to rebuild Dora Erickson, Ethel Boyes, Edgemont and Longfellow elementary schools, not adding any new schools.
With a decade having passed since that bond was authorized, and after failed bonds in 2017 and 2018, District 91 officials have only lengthened their list of needs, which can no longer be ignored, Haacke said.
Margaret Wimborne, director of communications and community outreach for District 91, said the long list of needs was one crafted and approved by the community.
“We have really tried to involve our patrons, and the items within the bond reflect what the community members have told us they want, Wimborne said.
“I think it is important to note that in our bond requests the last few years, an overwhelming amount of support has come from our patrons. In each of those bonds we were able to get more than 50% of the vote, we have simply not been able to make it past the supermajority required by the state.”
Idaho is one of only two states in the country that requires a supermajority of 66.67% approval to pass school funding bonds.
“Our country, our state and even our city are extremely divided on many things,” Haacke said. “I am not sure we could get 66.67% of people to agree on much of anything if we tried, even which side of the road we should walk on, but that is required of our education system and we will do our best to work with that requirement because it is necessary for our students.”
Haacke shared that over the course of the last approved bond, the trustees have held meetings to discuss and reassess taxes three different times, lowering the amount every time because the board was collecting too much from patrons.
“The district does not want to overcharge, we just want to be able to pay our bills and educate our students in buildings and with resources they need and deserve,” Haacke said.
The district is having four open houses throughout October to discuss needs within its schools as well as the tax impact in further detail.
The bond will be on the Nov. 8 ballot. More information about the bond and open houses can be found on the district’s website, ifschools.org.
A link to the tax impact calculator can be found at ifschools.org/Page/1670
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