Following a tax error that left the Provo City School District short $3.7 million, the school board decided to adopt a corrected tax rate that will affect the average homeowner $81 this year.
The decision was made at a board meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 2. During this meeting, they discussed several factors, including auditors' advice and community concerns.
After the president of the school board, Jennifer Partridge, was approached with the issue, she was tasked with looking over the options they could take to move forward.
“We spent time before the meeting communicating to the public what was going on,” Partridge said. “We also asked the public for feedback on what they thought and what their opinions were on what we should do.”
The first option was to take the money out of the fund balance and raise the taxes effective the following year. The other option was to immediately start rebudgeting the money and adopt tax rates for this year.
Ultimately, the board decided to raise property taxes at a rate of .007305, affecting the average Provo homeowner by $81 this year. This decision came after realizing the tax rate would get higher if they pushed it off until next year.
“We didn’t like the idea of pulling from the rainy day fund, and it actually would have bumped the tax rate next year,” Wendy Dau, superintendent of the Provo City School District, said.
Feedback from the community has been mostly positive. Many parents and community members are grateful that action has been taken to fix the problem.
“We had quite a bit of feedback from individuals who said, ‘This is an unfortunate mistake, but we really feel like you should go ahead and fix this now, ’” Dau said.
Emily Craig, a Provo homeowner and parent, was one of the individuals who agreed that the responsible thing to do was to correct the tax rates. She also added that the school board isn’t to blame for this mistake.
“The Provo school board has had a lot of tough decisions to make in recent years regarding how to best use taxpayer money,” Craig said. “This was unfortunate that they were handed this additional headache that wasn’t their fault.”
Dau continued to mention that a few people have complained about the decision. However, a lot of these complaints have come from a place of misunderstanding.
“We just educated them. We responded by telling them what’s been happening,” she said. “And certainly, people don’t like taxes. It seems like, regardless of how you explain it, they just don’t want you to raise them.”
The Provo City School District also mentioned that they are examining programs to determine where they can save money going forward. Ultimately, they claim that the money saved can go toward supporting better salaries for their employees.
President Partridge noted that they recognize the error they made, and they will continue to communicate the actions they have taken to the public.
For more updates about the issue, visit the Provo City School District's website.