Published: August 31, 2009 09:51 pm      

Tax rate up, taxes down in WO-C

The tax rate for property located within the West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District is on the rise but taxes will decrease slightly.

At a regularly scheduled meeting Monday night of the West Orange-Cove CISD Board of Trustees, the school board voted unanimously to approve the proposed ad valorem tax rate of $1.43204 per $100 valuation. This is an increase of more than 18 cents from the previous year.

A state provision, created following the devastation of Hurricane Rita, allows school districts to increase the maintenance and operation rate of its tax rate to the allowable maximum $1.17 per $100 valuation from its typical $1.04 per $100 valuation.

“We are allowed, for one year, to bump up the tax rate,” said Dr. O. Taylor Collins, West Orange-Cove CISD superintendent. “This will allow us to help pay for some of the Hurricane Ike costs.”

According to information provided to the district by Lynda Gunstream, Orange County Tax Assessor-Collector, the average market value of residences within the West Orange-Cove school district decreased by more than $7,000 since last year from $72,801 to $65,554 this year.

The average taxable value on a residence decreased from $43,241 last year to $37,443 this year. Based on the new taxable value, taxes will decrease slightly from $539.90 to approximately $536.20.

“The decrease in the tax value was the reason we had to increase the debt service rate so much,” said Melinda James, the district’s director of business operations. “We have to make sure we can cover some of our expenses, especially since we didn’t have flood insurance.”

The debt service rate, also known as the interest and sinking rate, will increase by more than five cents from the previous rate of $0.20853 to the proposed rate of $0.26204 per $100 valuation.

The purpose of the interest and sinking fund tax revenue is used to pay for bonded indebtedness on construction and equipment. The bonds were approved by voters of the district as was the tax rate necessary to pay for those bonds.

The new elementary school, which is currently under construction, is just one part of this rate increase. The renovations and expansion at West Orange-Stark Middle School and West Orange-Stark High School are also included, many of which are due to hurricane damage.

In other news, Collins said the first week of school went better than hoped with the district’s new transportation provider, STS. Kerr Baldwin, operations manager for STS in Orange, concurred.

“Drivers and parents seem pleased for the most part, although we did have a few ‘hiccups’ during the first week,” Baldwin said. “Our radios were out one day when the repeater was struck by lightning, and, on another day, we lost power out our building.”

Baldwin said there have only been minor issues during the first week of students pickup and dropoff, such as parents being parked inadvertently in bus driveways and low hanging limbs on some of the bus routes.

Benny Smith, principal of Anderson Elementary, raved about the job STS and its bus drivers have done through the first week.

“STS has done a good job,” Smith said. “Our campus is being cleared of students by about 45 minutes, on average, earlier than last year. It was cleared of students before 3 p.m. (Monday). Last year, it was about four o’clock each day during the first week.”

Baldwin said all elementary students are being delivered home or at their appropriate dropoff destination between 3:30 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. and buses are returning to the transportation lot by approximately 5 p.m.

The district has also considered hiring a Risk Diversion Officer to work within the district on a daily basis, but the board placed any action on the item on hold until more information is gathered.

School district attorney George Barron said Chief Sam Kittrell, Orange Police Department, had some concerns about the district using an off-duty OPD officer and what ramifications it could have for the police department and the City of Orange.

Kittrell informed Barron he could not make such a decision without approval from the Orange City Council.

West Orange-Cove CISD administrators are set to have a meeting with local law enforcement officials later this week to discuss the subject more.



Tommy Mann Jr. is a reporter for The Orange Leader. He can be reached at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2619 or tmann@orangeleader.com