New school district sets vote on millage.

The interim School Board for the new Jacksonville/ North Pulaski School District adopted a resolution Monday proposing a budget and tax levy for the 2016- 17 school year that will go to the district’s voters at the annual school election Sept. 15.

The proposed tax levy of 40.7 mills that will be on the ballot is the same rate that Jacksonville/ North Pulaski district residents are paying now as part of the Pulaski County Special School District.

A mill is one- tenth of a cent and yields $ 1 of tax for each $ 1,000 of assessed value. The owner of a $ 50,000 house will pay $ 407 annually, and the owner of a $ 100,000 house will pay $ 814.

There is no proposed increase in the existing tax rate and no extension of debt payments, Scott Beardsley, senior vice president of First Security/ Beardsley Public Finance, told the interim School Board.

The breakdown for the use of tax mills in the Pulaski County Special district will be the same in the new district, Beardsley said. That is 25 mills for maintenance and operation as required by state law, 0.9 mills for technology expenses and 14.8 mills for debt service on bonds.

However, if approved by voters in the new district and by the Arkansas Board of Education, the money generated by the 14.8 mills for debt service would be used in the new school district to finance up to $ 15,365,000 in 20- year construction bonds, Beardsley said.

Leaders in the new district have said that $ 10.8 million of the $ 15.365 million raised by a bond issue would be paid to the Pulaski County Special School District for the dozen Pulaski County Special district schools and a bus lot that are within the boundaries of the new district.

The Pulaski County Special district must sell its buildings, which were constructed with public funds, at a fair market value price to preserve the taxfree status of its own bonds and avoid lawsuits from bondholders who were willing to buy low- interest bonds because they were tax- free.

If a majority of the Jacksonville/ North Pulaski district voters reject the millage rate proposal at the September election, the tax rate applied in the new school district will still be 40.7 mills, but the $ 15.365 million bond issue won’t be authorized, Beardsley said in an interview at a break in the School Board meeting.

The School Board at that point could choose to sell secondlien construction bonds that don’t require voter approval, he said. Those second- lien bonds would be supported by revenue generated by the 14.8 debt service mills, Beardsley said.

Article 14, Section 3, of the Arkansas Constitution requires school districts to annually include school tax rates on the ballot, regardless of whether a change is requested. If voters reject a change, the millage rate remains at the current level.

The Jacksonville/ North Pulaski School District remains a part of the Pulaski County Special district while planning for the division of employees, assets and debts is done. District planners anticipate the new district will operate on its own starting July 1, 2016.