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Lower bond rate to provide tax relief
By Elise Franco
Austintown
Austintown homeowners could see a decrease in the amount of taxes they pay to the township.
The school district is in the process of selling the bonds purchased in 2004 to build Austintown Middle School, said district Treasurer Mary Ann Herschel.
To build AMS, Austintown voters approved a 2.9-mill bond issue in 2003 that allowed the district to borrow $26 million over about 26 years.
Herschel said officials have been watching interest rates on bonds for about three years, and they finally hit a rate low enough to save a substantial amount of money.
“We’ll sell off the old set and issue new bonds at a lower interest rate,” she said. “Over the course of the bonds’ lifetimes, this will save taxpayers about $2 million because that’s money we no longer need to collect.”
The district also has a 2.9-mill bond issue, approved in 2010, that allowed the district to borrow $27 million for the construction of two elementary schools on the Fitch campus. The Ohio Schools Facilities Commission is responsible for an additional $23 million of the project, which is slated for completion in 2013.
Herschel said the bonds from the 2003 issue aren’t sold yet, but the process should be complete by the end of April. She said taxpayers won’t start to see a difference in their taxes until next year.
“It usually a takes a while,” she said. “Part of what we’re charged with is doing the best we can for our taxpayers. This will give some relief.”
Superintendent Vincent Colaluca said district officials understand the financial struggle many residents face.
Colaluca said it’s important to make a good-faith effort now to reduce taxes because the district continues to lose state funding and may eventually need to look to homeowners for assistance.
“We want to reduce any expenditures for residents that we can,” he said. “The state has pulled back funding to schools, and we’ve lost about $2.4 million in two years.”
All of the school district’s levies add up to 54 mills, but the effective millage is only 26 mills because of changes in property values, which brings in about $20 million annually. The district operates on a $45 million budget, Colaluca said.
The district hasn’t had a new or replacement levy since 1996, he said. “We’re surviving, but at some point, we’ll have to go back to the taxpayers.”