Voters in the growing Harrisburg R-VIII school district have rejected a proposed 50-cent increase to the operating tax levy. The final vote against the measure was 275 to 216, according to the Boone County clerk’s office.
Harrisburg superintendent Steve Combs says this would have been about a seven percent increase on your property tax bill. He says the increase was designed to enable the Harrisburg district to continue to provide resources to students there.
He wrote a letter in June that says while the district is financially sound, they are at a crossroads and cannot rely on federal and state funding to cover increased costs. Superintendent Combs says their local tax revenue is a significant portion of their income and the only option they have for increasing their revenue.