Two of the tax levy options listed are property taxes and the other two are earned income taxes. The options are being considered for placement on the Nov. 7, 2023, election ballot.
The first proposed property tax levy would be an additional tax to raise $4.2 million per year for a five-year period. The second option would levy an additional tax in the amount of $4.56 million per year over the same five-year period.
The first proposed earned income tax levy (0.5%) would raise an additional $3.45 million annually, and the second option (0.75%) would amount to an estimated $5.22 million per year.
The board is expected to eventually vote to place one of the requests on the ballot.
Voters in the Vandalia-Butler school district voted in May to reject an additional 1% income tax to fund school operations. That tax would have lasted five years and generated about $6.4 million annually.
Vandalia-Butler voters last approved a tax increase for daily school operations in November 2013 when a 6.99-mill property tax levy narrowly passed.
Per the district’s most recent five-year forecast, Vandalia-Butler expects to continue deficit spending in upcoming years, but not as severely as it previously said. Rather than running out of cash around January of 2025, they now project to remain solvent into the 2026-27 school year.
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