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The Cape Henlopen school board voted Thursday to go back to the voters and ask permission to move tax money collected for school construction into its operating budget.
A referendum will be held Thursday, June 12.
Board members say having that money available will allow the district to fend off staff and program reductions from anticipated state budget cuts.
The tax rate voters approved in the 2006 referendum to build the new high school is higher than needed to finish that project.
As a result of that referendum, the debt service tax rate went up 45 cents per $100 assessed property value.
The district’s options are to ask taxpayers’ permission to reallocate the funds for a different project or return the extra money to the taxpayers by lowering the tax rate.
The referendum will ask taxpayers to reduce the debt service rate, used to pay for capital construction projects, and simultaneously raise the current operations tax by the same amount. There would be no tax increase.
Based on the rate set after the 2006 referendum the district has already collected $1.6 million – enough to construct a second synthetic turf field with lighting and stadium seating at the new high school. The board wants taxpayers’ approval to use that money to build the field now instead of waiting until the new school is built to see if there is enough money leftover.
The board wants to move 8 cents per $100 of assessed property value into operations – a move that will generate approximately $800,000 in the operations account. If the debt service rate were instead reduced by 8 cents, the average taxpayer would save about $18 per year, Stone said.
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