St. Louis County School District Tax Rates, Going Up Of Course

It was just last year when I was mentioning I should not be complaining because our school taxes were going up by only 4%. Of course, I spoke too soon. I just received the latest Ladue School District newsletter explaining how our school tax rate could be going up by $.49 per assessed $100 (if the proposition passes), which translated means an increase of 15.8% over what we paid in 2011. However, our district will still actually have the lowest tax rate in the county, but that is only because all the other districts with low rates have been jacking up their tax rates as well. I thought I needed a nifty online calculator to figure out the increase, so I wrote one, not only for Ladue, but for most of the other school districts in the area who increased their rates substantially last year. I also found the median home values for all the districts to see how much a median home in each district would see as an increase. The actual increase for us personally will only be a few hundred dollars a year, and since my son is still in school there, I do not mind the extra cost to benefit his education. However, I can see that the tax increase may be a problem for some seniors in the district on fixed incomes. Not everybody who lives in the Ladue School district is filthy, stinking rich as many people like to believe. It will be interesting to see how everybody in the district votes in April. The district passed an increase for 2010, but that was only a 4% increase, not 15.8%.

Comments

Shawn said…
I just stumbled across your calculator and just decided to see who made it. You seem very focused and intune with a lot of things. Keep up the great work. I don't even loo at blogs much but yours is definitely worth the time. The content is really informative.
8:52 PM
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