By way of our weekly words of gratitude, Tom Petzold recited John Gillespie Magee's inspiring High Flight.
For those Rotarians with a surplus of blood, Dr. Ramona Pleava is planning another blood drive. Stay tuned.
Candidates for the Club Board will be announced on our October 13th meeting and elections will be held on our October 27th meeting.
I found myself drifting off around minute three of his lecture, drawn instead to remembrances of just how darn good the late Harvey Korman was as Hedley Lamarr in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles.
Fortunately, Dr. VanWagonrer's slides were very detailed. Herein are the details for those interested: The Headlee Amendment, which was passed in 1978, requires the school district to reduce its millage when annual growth on existing property exceeds the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or 5%, whichever is less. Therefore, the millage rate gets “rolled back” so that the resulting growth in property tax revenue is no more than the rate of inflation.
Annually, the district must apply a Headlee rollback factor. The annual factor is then added to prior years to determine the cumulative Headlee rollback factor or the “millage reduction fraction”. The total “millage reduction factor” is then applied to the millage originally authorized by a vote of the district’s taxpayers. The actual mills available to be levied by the district is the result of the authorized millage rate times the total millage reduction factor.
By law, TCAPS cannot levy more than 18 mills. (Author's note: A mill is a technical term for the process by which local governments often turns taxpayer dough into stale bread.) This is the amount 18 mills the district is required to levy in order to receive the full per-pupil foundation allowance. This tax does not apply to primary residences and other exempt property, it is only levied against properties considered “non-primary residence”, which are essentially businesses, industrial property, and second homes located in our school district
Further, funding is based on a state determined “per-pupil” amount, for fiscal year 2020, that amount was $8,111. Local non-homestead taxes make up one portion of the per pupil amount (fiscal year 2020 was 47%) and the state covers the difference. In order to receive the state determined per-pupil amount, the state requires the district to levy 18 mills on non-homestead property.
Ultimately, this Operating Millage Proposal will allow the school district to levy the statutory rate of not to exceed 18 mills on all property, except principal residence and other property exempted by law, required for the school district to receive its revenue per pupil foundation allowance.
(And if you can follow all that, you're a better, more engaged citizen than I.)
During the customary Q&A portion of our lunch presentation, Dr. VanWagonrer answered several audience questions and praised his team for their flexibility and dedication in the face of COVID.
President Mack concluded the meeting with another reminder regarding our upcoming October 13th and 27th meetings and club board election.
Please Note: The 14th Annual Jim 'Van' Work Bee has been rescheduled due to rain and will now be held on Friday, October 9, 2020 from 1-5pm. Bring your friends, family, work clothes, work gloves, and boots to the Canterbury Woods property entrance--off of Garfield just south of Lardie Road. We'll wrap up our work with a 4pm social hour of fellowship, a campfire, and treats!
Please RSVP by emailing tcrotary2822@gmail.com or calling Kathy (231)-313-0253.
