Malta School District to hold Mail Ballot Election

The Board of Trustees of the Malta School District recently approved the ballot measures which will be arriving in the mail shortly.

There are two issues on the ballot that need to be explained. The Malta School District has not requested a General Fund Mill Levy increase since 2012. The $28,581.68 that has been placed on the ballot represents a 3.77 mill increase. Those mills would impact a $100,000 home by $5.08 annually and a $200,000 home $10.17 annually.

The other ballot measure is the Building Reserve Fund. In 2014, the taxpayers approved a $100,000 levy for five years. That measure sunsets this school year. The major projects that were completed using those funds included the Elementary School Boiler retrofit project, the ongoing heating and cooling project at the middle/high school, as well as a major surveillance camera upgrade at the Malta Middle/High School.

The requested Building Reserve Fund Levy is for the same amount ($100,000.00) for the same term (Five Years), and, if passed, would have the impact of holding property taxes steady, assuming the mill value remains the same. State law requires the District to publish the property tax impact on the ballot for a $100,000 and $200,000 home. Those numbers for the proposed Building Reserve Fund are $17.79 and $35.58, respectively. Again, that is not necessarily a tax increase, since the District has been levying those amounts for the past five years, but would result in a corresponding tax decrease if the ballot measure were defeated.

The Building Committee has a lengthy list of proposed projects in all facilities including a retrofit of the boiler exhaust at the Middle/High School, a surveillance camera upgrade at the Malta Elementary School as well as concrete/drainage work around the Middle and High School and patching or resurfacing the asphalt on the Malta Elementary Playground and parking lots at the High School.