How can you say the bond issueS would not INCREASE THE tax RATE?

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 per pupil funding remains the lowest in the region even after the 2018 education funding reform.

Bartlesville patrons approved a 2016 bond issue that increased the annual "sinking fund" millage from about 27 to about 32 mills in response to state funding shortfalls, allowing more operational expenses to be shifted to bond issues to preserve general fund dollars for salaries and consumables, which cannot be funded by bond issues.

The 2019 bond issue kept the millage at about 30 mills. The precise millage fluctuates annually due to county valuation changes and the timing of bond sales. That millage is devoted to project areas outlined in each bond issue and CANNOT be spent for any other purposes.

The 2021 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 the property tax rate 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.