DE PERE – Property owners in the De Pere school district will see their tax rate for school district purposes decrease by 13 percent to $8.30 from $9.54 per $1,000 of property value following school board approval Monday, Oct. 28, of the district’s final 2019-20 budget.
The total approved tax levy is $19.9 million, an overall decrease of $1.57 million or 7.34 percent, compared to last year.
In addition to local funding, the district receives just more than $28 million from the State of Wisconsin, $1.3 million from the federal government, $4.8 million in inter-district payments, $1.8 million from food service and $784,000 from other sources.
Upon certifying the levy, the district’s total 2019-20 budget is $56.5 million net of interfund transfers.
Salaries and benefits comprise roughly 80 percent of budget expenditures.
Business Manager Dawn Foeller said the tax rate decrease is mainly due to the step down of referendum debt of $2.4 million.
Contributing to the decrease in the mill rate was the growth in equalized valuation of the district of 6.49 percent for a total district value of $2.397 billion.
The district continues to see increases in its full-time enrollment, adding 63 students based on the State of Wisconsin’s official count conducted in September.
“This is all good news for the district and our property owners,” said Foeller.