EDITOR:
DON’T WANT TO SEE YOUR PROPERTY TAXES GO UP? Be prepared to vote NO against removing Proposition C should the Platte County R-3 School District put it on the ballot. It looks like they want to.
Prop C limits the operating levy amount the district can set on your property as they get money from the state which comes from a one cent sales tax. If Prop C is repealed, that limit will no longer exist and the district can then raise the levy amount, which will raise your property taxes to help fund R-3’s operating expenses while you are already paying the maximum amount allowed on bonds and more on lease purchases.
DO YOU WANT LOWER PROPERTY TAXES? I think most of us do. So when you see the phrase at election time “No Tax Increase Bond Issue” realize that is just a nice way of saying we are going to keep taxes as they are since you are already used to paying them.
If you want your property taxes to ultimately go down at some point, you have to quit maxing out the amount you fund with bonds and that will lower the debt portion on your property taxes as the bonds are paid off. State law says a school district can only get bonds for 15% of its assessed evaluation, so in times of growth they try to get taxpayers to use the full 15%, which is what PCR-3 has done for years. Plus R-3 has gotten additional funds by circumventing that law using “lease purchase agreements,” which have higher costs than bonds.
According to the Show Me Institute, due to the massive amount of debt PCR3 currently has the district now spends $26,415 dollars per year per student, which out of 552 districts puts them at Number 24 in spending. Eighteen of those districts above them having fewer than 150 students.
According to the Show Me Institute, the PCR-3 district ranks 141st overall for academics, and the school district was given a 1.8 score out of a possible 4.0.
So 24th in spending, 141st in academics. How does that $26K per student and 1.8 score by R-3 compare to other local districts that have grown a lot? Kearney $13K and 2.3, Smithville $17K and 2.1, Park Hill $17K with 2.0, and Grain Valley, which has grown much more than PCR3 over the past 20 years, spends just $13,285 per student per year, about half of what we spend and has a score of 2.2.
As the enrollment has leveled off in several of these districts they have reined in the spending. But not R-3, where it is full speed ahead even though in the 2019/20 school year we had 4,256 students in the district, this year just 4,283, so a growth of 27 students or one classroom in five years.
Enrollment projections from the district presented to the taxpayers less than two years ago missed high by 223 students. High again as usual and again missing by 10 classrooms in just a two year period. WOW.
Have you seen any of this information highlighted from the district? No you have not.
PCR-3 will send out flyers and emails paid for by you to everyone in the county, not mentioning any of this when the next election comes around.
Those of you who read this will have to bring the massive R-3 debt up at the holidays this year to friends and family, letting them know what is actually going on in the district and what Prop C means to their wallet.
According to the Platte County R-3 Facility Master Plan, they would like to get a waiver (repeal) for Prop C in 2024 to get more money for operations, then in 2025 get another $56 million in bonds followed up by $51 million five years later. Both will probably be “No Tax Increase Bond issues.”
Look at the stagnant enrollment, massive debt, academic struggles and the approximately 800 empty seats we have already paid for in the district and decide if you think this new source of funding is justified.
Information for this letter came from Showmeinstitute.org., DESE and PCR-3.
-Kirby Holden
Rural Platte County