Sublette County School District #1 approves motion to return Tax District 102
by Jay Harnack, Superintendent, Sublette County School District #1
April 15, 2011
At its regularly scheduled meeting on April 14, 2011 the Sublette County School District #1 Board of Trustees approved a motion to return Tax District 102 to Sublette County School District #9. A proposal will be drafted by Superintendent Jay Harnack and sent to the County Boundary Board for their consideration. Sublette 1 Board Chairman Greg Anderson stated the Board made the decision to put the measure on the agenda after reviewing iformation provided by the Sublette County Assessor’s Office and taking input from Sublette 1 constituents.
Chairman Anderson made clear that he viewed this proposal as the final step in discussions regarding the REC and BOCES revenues "We’ve spent an inordinate amount of time on this issue. We need to get back to focusing on the goals we’ve set for the school district. Returning District 102 to Sublette 9 is the best compromise we can make. It provides the Sublette 9 Board the opportunity to address this issue on their own through the use of the optional BOCES mils" said Chairman Anderson.
The Sublette 1 Board cited the following factors as integral to their decision to approve the proposal to return Tax District 12. As they have done in the past, the Sublette 1 Board of Trustees and the Sublette 1 BOCES invites all Sublette 9 constituents to participate in all Sublette 1BOCES programs.
• From the beginning, the Sublette 9 Board has stated this is about educational resources.
• The Sublette 1 Board considers the REC Mill and the BOCES mill as two distinct issues.
• The REC mill is for recreation rather than education. Sublette 1 stakeholders were very clear that the REC mill should be entirely retained to fully fund the PAC and provide for is long term success and ongoing financial commitments.
• The Sublette 1 Board recognizes that a portion of BOCES funds provide enhanced education opportunities to students.
• The Sublette 1 Board wishes to provide the Sublette 9 Board with the means to provide enhanced educational opportunities to ther students on a greater scale without reducing opportunities for Sublette 1 students.
• Given the additional property valuation resulting from the return of Tax District 102, Sublette 9 now has the ability to increase their BOCES revenues to an amount equal to or greater than the current revenues of ublette 1 BOCES through the implementation of the optional two (2) BOCES mills. (1)
• This does not include the additional revenues which will be generated from the Cimarex plant.
• The vast majority of the BOCES revenues are generated by mineral taxes. Adding the optional BOCES mills would have very little impact on residential and agricultural tax payers.
• If the optional two (2) BOCES mills were implemented by the Sublette 9 Board, residents of the Sublette 9 district would still pay 25% less in taxes on average for a comparable house than Sublette 1 residents.2
• For the owner of a 1200 sq. ft. house on a 10,000 sq. ft. lot in Big Piney, the cost of the optional two (2) mills would be less than $25.00 (2)
1. Sublette County Assessor’s Office – Taxes for Hypothetical House in Big Piney, Marbleton and Pinedale.
2. Sublette County Assessor’s Office – Revenues Generated From Realignment of Tax District 102
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