Due to timing issue, KDE not accepting the tax rates previously approved by W’burg Ind. Schools

The Williamsburg Independent Board of Education has reversed course on its previously-approved tax rates due to an issue on the timing of their public hearing regarding the setting of the rates.

Anytime a public school district elects to set a tax rate above the 4 percent rate, they are required to hold a public hearing to allow for comments and concerns to be voice to the board. The 4 percent rate is not an increase on the actual rate taxpayers pay, but on the amount of revenue a school district should bring in based on last year’s numbers.

The intent to set those rates and the announcement of the public hearing must be advertised in the local newspaper of record for two consecutive weeks, with the meeting to be held between seven to 10 days from the final publication date.

That information was published in the Sept. 6 and Sept. 13 editions of the News Journal. The hearing was held Sept. 19 just prior to the board’s regular monthly meeting in which the rates were set. At that time, the board unanimously voted to keep both the real estate and personal property tax rates the same at 43.5 cents and 49.9 cents per $100 valuation, respectively.

In keeping the rates the same, the school district was expected to see an increase in total revenue of over $230,000, mostly due to the leap in assessments for the City of Williamsburg over the past year, which climbed by approximately $26 million due to new development.

However, the Kentucky Department of Education will not accept the rates approved during last month’s regular meeting, saying that the public hearing was held one day too early.

According to Superintendent Tabetha Housekeeper, she counted Sept. 13 as the first day of the seven-to-10-day timeline, which would have made the board’s regular meeting date the seventh day after publication.

“The thing that I was unaware of is day one does not count,” said Housekeeper. “I want to be honest and say, this is not an oversight. I actually strategically planned it so that we would have it be at the seven-day mark. And I wanted to have those other days as a buffer in case something happened.”

Board attorney Paul Croley informed the board that, according to the regulatory statute, the clock on such hearings is counted on a 24-hour period, meaning that it does not start on the day itself but when the advertisement for the meeting is published.

The timing of publication can begin at any point it becomes available to the public. In the case of the advertisement on Sept. 13, the News Journal posted legal notices to their website just before 2 a.m. that day.

“If you go back and look when it was posted online, we were about two hours off,” said Croley.

Croley is continuing to look into the issue on behalf of the board to see if there are any ways that they can contest KDE’s decision to not accept the rates, but in the meantime, Housekeeper said that she felt it was best to set a rate that is permissible without a public hearing in hopes of being able to lock it in.

“We don’t want to move forward without going ahead and accepting the next best rate,” said Housekeeper.

The board ultimately voted to set both real estate and personal property tax rates at 39.2 cents per $100 valuation. Both numbers are based on an actual rate of 38.9 cents per $100 valuation with an additional .03 cents from prior year exonerations.

According to an informational flyer provided at the meeting, the new rate would still bring in almost $100,000 more revenue than last year.

It is still up to KDE whether or not to approve the new rate. If they do not, the school district will likely be forced to adopt the compensating rate, which will set both real estate and personal property tax rates at 27.3 cents per $100 valuation, which would still allow for approximately $60,000 in additional revenue over last year.