Revenue Neutral Rate Information
What does Revenue Neutral mean?
- Revenue Neutral is when a taxing entity budgets the exact same amount of property tax revenue, in dollars, for the upcoming budget year as they did for the current year.
- If a taxing entity plans to use more property tax revenue in the next budget year compared to the current year, even $1 more, they would exceed revenue neutral and are required to hold a public hearing.
- The Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR) is the mill levy rate to generate the exact same amount of property tax revenue as the year before, using the current tax year's total assessed valuation.
What is the mill levy rate?
- The mill levy tax rate is applied by taxing entities (city, county, school, fire district, library and the state) to raise revenue to cover their budgets and pay for public services.
- The mill rate of each entity (or jurisdiction) is multiplied by your home's assessed value to give you an estimated tax bill.
Why would taxing entities want to increase revenue?
- A taxing entity does not only increase revenue to provide new services; they often need to increase property tax revenue to provide the same level of service as the year before. (While the RNR law is an important step for budget transparency, it does not take inflation into account. As property values are rising, so are the costs of goods and services.)
- To provide our students with the same level of academic instruction (or better), it costs more.
What should you know about the USD 458 mill levy rate?
- School districts have a mill levy rate for each of the different funds in their budgets (i.e. USD 458 has a General Fund mill rate, Supplemental General (LOB), Capital Outlay, Bond & Interest, and Special Assessment (our portion of the Basehor Blvd. sewer)).
- Kansas Statute General Fund Mill Levy (KSA 72-5142) says tax shall be levied at a rate of 20 mills.
Important things to remember about RNR:
- This is NOT the final levy rate.
- The district can adopt a lower levy rate but CANNOT exceed the rates submitted in July's intent to exceed Revenue Neutral.
- The final levy rates will be determined as part of the budgeting process.
- The final levy rates will be approved when the budget is adopted at the August 29 Board of Education meeting.
- All board meetings are open to the public. Dates and times can be found here.
USD 458 will hold their RNR hearing on Thursday, August 29th at 5 p.m. and Budget Hearing on Thursday, August 29th at 6 p.m. at the District Office. Accountability reports can be found on our website at www.usd458.org.