Tuesday, June 12, 2012

JPS is raising your taxes.

The Jackson Public School District is going to raise your taxes. Yup, the same school district that spends $57 million more than Desoto County public schools while the best middle school and high school (yes, that is singular) are only at the successful level is going to raise your taxes by approximately three mills. The Clarion-Ledger reported:

"When 81 percent of voters in 2006 approved a $150 million bond issue to build more schools and improve others, that meant they were willing to have property taxes raised to pay that debt.

But city leaders didn't raise taxes accordingly, and the school district didn't push it. Instead, the district quietly paid between $4 million and $5 million on the bond debt from reserve funds.

That, plus necessary tapping of the reserve because of economic factors, means the district will end the current school year with less in its fund balance than required by state law.

Although educators haven't pushed raising the millage in sympathy to the city's struggles in a dour economy, "now the district can't be nice about it," interim Superintendent Jayne Sargent said Monday.

"Our reserves are so low that we're almost broke. We can't pay it like we have over the last three years," she said. "We've had as much as we can take. We need to do now what we should have done three years ago."....

Amortization of the $150 million debt during its 20-year lifetime can increase the payment in some years. The bond debt will increase by $2.3 million during the next academic year over 2010-11, said Sherilyn Miller, the district's chief financial officer.

It's up to the city, based on local property values, to determine the new millage that will generate the tax dollars needed for each year's bond repayment.

Although the district hasn't done an analysis, it likely will be between 3 and 3.5 mills, Miller said. One mill is equal to $1 of tax on every $1,000 of a property's assessed value..
.." Article

Nice. Here is the Here is the bond schedule for the $114 million issue. It will only get worse as the payments will increase from $2.1 million this year to nearly $5 million in 2014. Of course, Mayor Johnson said he had no knowledge of the increase in debt service. Well Mayor, its right there in the schedule. Easy for anyone to find on Emma.msrb.org. Here is the link to the statement for the 2007 bond issue for $36 million.


The official statement of the bond issue. PDF format, 161 pages.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, would you prefer that they default?
It's a big shit sandwich and yes, we all have to take a bite.

Anonymous said...

What really bites is that property taxes are being raised on properties that are declining in value!!!!Most of the time by 50% ! Well hell...I was going to take my new appraisal down to the Chancery this week to ask for a decrease!

Anonymous said...

The voters have spoken. The vast, overwhelming majority of which don't actually pay property taxes because they don't own any real estate in Hinds County.

Strike that. The moochers have spoken.

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile, North Dakota votes to abolish property taxes

Anonymous said...

you deserve the sandwich served if you go to establishment that doesnt pass standards-- of anything.

Anonymous said...

When 81 percent of voters in 2006 approved a $150 million bond issue to build more schools and improve others, that meant they were willing to have property taxes raised to pay that debt.

Blatantly false. During the run up to the election all the pro-bond mouthpieces (which included many of the debt happy RINOs that the Democrats whore out) went out of their way to explain that the bond payments would be handled WITHOUT any millage increases because existing (at-the-time) JPS bond issues were due shortly to be rolling off the roll as payment was nearing final payment.

Jayne is full of shit.

Exactly like, during the election, when it was specifically promised that a new junior high was going to be built in NORTHEAST Jackson only to have that modified immediately after the election to a new junior high in NORTH Jackson.

meople said...

This marks the begining of the fall of Rome. Expect twice as much "white flight" upper income families. And I know Jackson been in the shit hole for a long time meople what do you mean fall of Rome.

Anonymous said...

meople @ 6:35: are you answering the voices in your head in your post?

meople said...

@ 8:50 some of the Jackson stomping trolls have become very predictable. Just trying to save us the time of them hijacking this thread with repetitive Jackson bashing. Is that ok? Is it?

Shadowfax said...

Very damned few (if any) elected officials in Jackson could give a rip. The people who keep voting them in are not property owners. Very damned few department heads and thousands of other City of Jackson employees could give a rip. The people who control their jobs are the ones voted in by non taxpayers. Very damned few of the thousands employed by the school system could give a rip. The school system is the biggest employment agency in the state's brokest and largest city and nobody can touch those jobs or upcoming pensions. In short, nobody gives a rip except a few property owners, and if they're dumb enough to live there, they're not smart enough to protest.

Anonymous said...

Go Meopple!

Anonymous said...

Is Meople the son of Mott the Hoople?

Anonymous said...

Throwing more money at the schools is not the answer. The intelligence level of a disproportionment of the graduates is so low that the students have to take remedial courses to get a job or to get into a college.

It's difficult to legislate parental responsibility, however, something has to be done to get the parents (or single parent) to take more interest in the education of their child. Part of the problem is that so many of the parents don't know enough to help their children with their homework. This has been happening at least since the mid 60's when I was a young man. My family left Jackson in the mid 70's. I hope that Jackson and other areas can get the education system educating students rather than just socially passing them to the next grade level. Good Luck Jackson!



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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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