Norborne voters pass school bond issue
, News reporter
11-06-2009
Voters in the Norborne R-VIII School District approved a special school bond issue, "Proposition K.I.D.S." on Tuesday, allowing the district to transfer a lease purchase - used to build the high school - to a bond.
A letter was sent to each patron in the district, dated Oct. 26, indicating the purpose and scope of the transfer.
The Norborne Board of Education will borrow $1,500,000 to provide funds to resurface the parking lot and purchase and install three additional fire hydrants, to increase funds available for operating needs and the completion of other remodeling and repair improvements to the existing facilities of the district, and issue a bond to pay off the original lease that built the school.
The letter indicated the lease, originally for $1,000,000, will have $495,000 of remaining principal at the end of this school year.
Tranferring it to a bond will generate approximately $35,000 more Railroad and Utilities money per year that comes directly from the county and not the local taxpayers. It will also allow the district to refinance the loan as a bond at an interest rate of approximately 2.8 percent instead of the present 6 percent rate.
This will help save the district approximately $40,000 in interest savings over the life of the loan which is due to be paid off in 2017.
The second step of the bond issue is to appropriate approximately $500,000 for the purchase of three fire hydrants around the school and to resurface the school's parking lot.
The board indicated the money for these projects will be stimulus money from the government, with an interest rate of one to one and a half percent. The ballot indicated interest incurred is estimated to increase the debt service property tax levy of $.23 per $100 of assessed valuation. The adjusted debt service levy of the school district is estimated to increase from $.30 to $0.53 per $100 of assessed valuation of real and personal property.
"We had 139 yes votes and 66 no votes," said Carroll County Clerk Peggy McGaugh. "It required a four-sevenths vote to pass, and it got it."
McGaugh said voter turnout was low at 805 voters.
"That was a 25 percent turnout and all of them were from Norborne in Carroll County," she said.
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