Emery County School District Press Release
Emery County residents are seeing two levies from Emery County School District on their property tax notices: A judgement levy and an increased capital levy. The judgement levy covers a reimbursement of tax monies that must be paid back to Deseret Generation & Transmission Co-Op after they successfully appealed their property value. The amount of this judgement levy is similar to that of last year, resulting in no difference in the overall tax amount.
The school district is also proposing an increase to its capital outlay levy, increasing the rate to .001100 of county property values. This increase will cost the average homeowner roughly $6.00 per month. The need for this additional tax revenue is the result of several issues.
● A shortfall in the amount needed to complete the building of Ferron Elementary and Emery High schools due to construction inflation increases caused by the pandemic and current economic issues.
● The missed opportunity to qualify for state grant funding. In 2022, the state legislature allocated state capital outlay funding for rural counties if their levy amount was above a designated limit. Emery District did not qualify since the district’s levy was much lower than the limit. The proposed levy rate was specifically chosen to allow ECSD to qualify for this state funding if continued.
● The need to increase the amount of revenue to maintain current buildings and replace buildings in the future.
When construction budgets were approved, estimates were well under the bonded amount and included regular construction inflation increases. Throughout each construction phase, the budget was reevaluated and approved based on the information at that time. As time passed, it became apparent that construction costs were escalating and alternatives needed to be considered. Some steps taken by the school district to alleviate these cost increases included:
● Reconsideration of building specifications and “value engineering” to ensure the district was getting the best possible products for the price.
● Commitment from the board and administration to apply revenue obtained from the development of solar fields in our area to be applied to the cost of construction.
● Approval of fund balance “rainy day” funds to be spent to alleviate cost increases. Emery County School District has always been committed to being financially responsible and has taken many measures to spend taxpayers’ money wisely.
● ECSD’s capital/debt levy has been one of the lowest rates in the state for the last 20 years. Many other rural districts’ rates are four to five times higher.
● Levy funds received for building costs have only covered regular maintenance costs, allowing for a lower tax rate, but not permitting a reserve for additional capital projects.
● ECSD is an anomaly in the state, with 80% of tax funds received from centrally assessed valuations. This means that the citizens only pay 20% of the taxes collected county-wide and lets the school district leverage the revenue acquired from centrally assessed entities and keep tax amounts applied to citizens lower.
This additional capital levy will allow the school district funding and time to plan for maintenance and updates to all school buildings. Most buildings were built in the power plant boom in the 1970s, which means the schools are aging at the same time, requiring very costly upgrades and repairs across the board.
Emery County School District is devoted to providing the best resources and education to the children of our county. The district is also committed to supporting and providing resources as appropriate to the community.
For more information, please attend the public hearing to be held on Wednesday, Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. at the Emery County School District Office, 120 North Main, Huntington.