Lake Forest School District lowered its tax rate by nearly 3 cents at the July 2 school board meeting.
Lake’s tax rate is now $1.16. This means for a house assessed at $46,000, which is the average assessment rate for a single-family home in Kent County, the property owners would pay $533.60 in taxes to the district.
Under the former tax rate, property owners were paying $547.31 annually.
“This is the third year in a row that we’ve decreased our taxes,” said Lake Forest Business Manager Christine daCosta.
She said the decrease came from paying off bonds that were sold 20 years ago for a 1989 school renovation. The bond was unusual in that rather than decreasing in interest like bonds usually did, it actually increased in interest.
Dollars also seem to be paying for more right now as well, daCosta said.
“I mean everything we’ve been bidding out lately has been coming in under bid, which will allow
us to stretch our dollars even further,” she said.
School board President Christopher Baker said the lower tax rate is certainly good news with other taxes going up and salaries going down.
“Anything would be better than an increase, particularly this year,” he said, adding, “It might be a small decrease, but at least it’s a decrease.”
In his seven and a half years on the school board, Baker said he’s seen the tax rate go up or down usually depending on whether any referendums have been passed, and he agreed that there aren’t that many school construction projects in the works right now.
Lake Forest is currently renovating the high school and W.T. Chipman Middle School.
Felton —
