New London school board approves FY 2020 budget

NEW LONDON - New London school baord approved the 2020 Fiscal year budget despite citizen concern over rising tax rates during a special session on Monday, April 1.

David Simmon of New London approached the board to express concern over his increased tax rates over the last two years.

'The biggest reason I'm here tonight is two years ago my tax bill went up 25 percent,” said Simmons. 'Last year they went up 10 percent; 35 percent in the two years.”

Though Simmons had questions about the district's tax property tax levy he recognized other factors played into his tax rates.

'Part of that 25 percent was from what they call the CSR2 Rating on rural farm ground,” said Simmons. 'The professors at Iowa State thought we could take poor ground and make it (good), but that's kind of a fallacy.”

According to Simmons, Henry County was one of the last to convert to the CSR2 rating system which taxes people based on the state of their land and soil quality.

'We know that farmers such as (Simmons) are paying more of the tax than I (am required to) as a citizen,” said district superintendent Chad Wahls. 'We, the board members here, really took that into consideration for folks such as yourself and everybody.”

Walhs said the board's goal was to have that property tax levy continue to decrease going forward year to year. This tax levy is determined by the district at the beginning of every fiscal year and collects a set amount per-thousand dollars of property value.

The 2020 fiscal year budget was approved by the school board. The property tax levy is $16.86 per thousand.

The school board will meet again for its next regular meeting on April 15.