How can you say the bond issue would not raise taxes?

By state law, the district can only receive 35 mills of property taxes for its general fund and 5 mills for its building fund. That funding level is not sufficient for any new construction nor large-scale renovations, especially when state formula aid funding has never recovered from a decade of cuts.

Bartlesville patrons approved a 2016 bond issue that increased the annual "sinking fund" millage from about 27 to about 30 mills. That extra millage is devoted to project areas outlined in each bond issue and CANNOT be spent for any other purposes.

The 2019 bond issue is designed so that the "sinking fund" millage would be kept as steady as possible at approximately 30 mills. As old bonds from the earlier bond issues rolled off, they would be replaced by new ones, keeping property taxes steady rather than the millage "sinking" over time if no new bond issues were approved.

You can think of it as a property-tax version of the sales taxes Bartlesville residents regularly vote to renew every so often to fund economic development and perform citywide infrastructure projects.

If voters failed to approve any new bond issues, the sinking fund millage would gradually decline to zero over the next decade or so, as the old bonds were paid off. But the lack of new funding for facilities, maintenance, technology, textbooks, and more would eventually require massive amounts of the district's General Fund to fulfill critical needs. Many elective programs and courses and extracurricular offerings would be eliminated, teaching positions would be cut, and class sizes would increase dramatically. The established excellence in Bartlesville Public Schools is a consequence of voters historically investing in their schools by passing regular bond issues to preserve, protect, and support a comprehensive quality education for all students.

How does a continuing sinking fund rate of 30 mills translate into dollars?

Since 2016 property owners in the school district have been paying a levy of 30 mills for district’s sinking fund, which is dedicated to projects in voter-approved bond issues. The bond issue would maintain that rate. How that translates into dollars depends on the assessed valuation of the property.

To determine the annual amount being paid, you first have to obtain the “net assessed valuation” by calculating 11% of the “taxable market value” of the property. Many homeowners qualify for a “homestead exemption” which reduces the resulting amount by $1,000. Then you multiply the new value by 0.030, since 30 mills translates to 30/1000, to obtain the annual tax being levied.

For example, a home with a taxable market value of $100,000 would have a net assessed valuation of 0.11 * $100,000 = $11,000.

But a homestead exemption reduces that by $1,000, and $11,000 - $1,000 = $10,000.

Then we multiply by the appropriate millage: 0.030 * $10,000 = $300.

So that homeowner is currently paying (and, if this proposal is approved, they would continue to pay) $300 per year (which equates to $25 per month) in property taxes to the district’s sinking fund to pay off bond issues for school improvements.