Ladue School District Gets It Wrong On Assessments …

The Post has a very short blurb that still manages to say a great deal about assessments and basic economics. It is so small I’ll reprint the entire thing here (emphasis added):

The Ladue School Board has decided to keep the district’s residential real estate tax rate at $2.75 for each $100 of assessed value. The rate is the same as last year. Board members said they could keep the same rate because of the district’s growing tax base and an increase in assessed value. The board approved the debt service rate at 23 cents for the third year.

Where should I begin? First of all, you have to like how they seem to be bragging about not raising the taxes on property owners in the district. Assessments in Ladue School District went up 21 percent during the past two years. As school districts are heavily dependent on local property taxes, that will lead to a 21 percent increase in their budget, from property taxes alone. Without any rollback, if you live within Ladue School District (which is much larger than just Ladue), you’ll see a 21 percent increase in your tax bill for the schools, but hey — at least they didn’t raise your tax rate!

I emphasized the part about the growing tax base because it is all the more reason to roll back the rates! Good for Ladue to have a growing tax base, but new construction is not even counted in the math for assessment increases. So Ladue schools will actually see an even larger increase in funding than 21 percent, but hey — at least they didn’t increase your tax rate!