Property owners in both the Harlan County School District and the Harlan Independent School District will not see an increase in taxes from either district this year. Both boards decided to leave the tax rates unchanged during their meetings.

Meeting in regular session on Aug. 15, the Harlan County Board of Education voted to leave all rates the same as last year and not take a state recommended compensating rate that would have increased taxes a tenth of a cent. The district’s revenue will be about $158,000 less by taking the same rate.

The board reviewed various projections from the state on rates and the revenue each would generate for the district. Following discussion, the real property, tangible property, aircraft and watercraft tax rate was set at 54.8 cents per $100 of assessed value and the motor vehicle and watercraft property at 46.4 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Superintendent Brent Roark told the board that the state’s listed rate to generate the same revenue as in the previous year would be 54.9 cents per $100 of assessed value, up ever so slightly from the current 54.8 percent.

“The compensating rate would be one tenth of a percent increase,” said Roark. “We would be perfectly fine to leave the rate at its current level and not take the extra one tenth of a percent increase.”

Roark said the increase reported in property valuation is a misleading figure, noting it climbed from $706 million to $717 million. Roark said by adding back the $49 million tangible asset omission to the 2018-19 valuation, it would have been $755 million compared to this year’s $717 million valuation. Roark emphasized the county has lost $370 million in property valuation since 2016-17, falling from $1.1 billion to $717 million.

“We are very comfortable if you leave us at the 54.8 percent. We don’t need to put any more burden on folks. We can operate efficiently on what we had this year,” said Roark.

Roark also noted that a typical collection rate for Harlan County is 90 percent. Some of the non-paid taxes are recovered through delinquent proceedings. Roark said during the immediate past year the district saw an increase of collections to 94 percent, although that is abnormally high based on collection history.

The board also left the motor vehicle rate the same as last year.

Harlan County continues to have one of the lowest rates in the state and the lowest in the eastern Kentucky region at 46.4 cents.

The Harlan Independent Board of Education met in special session on Aug. 21 and voted to leave the tax rate at the current rate of 51 cents for real and personal property.

Board chairman Dr. Matt Nunez said, “We are very proud of our school district and strive to stretch every available dollar for the benefit of our students.”

“We have the second lowest tax rate among independent school districts in the commonwealth and are in the bottom 20 percent among the entire state,” Nunez said. “There has been a real effort to bring in more services and resources to our students and community from outside grants while striving to keep taxes as low as possible. We have been very successful at doing both at this point. In the end, it’s a win for the taxpayer and the students.”

After a short discussion, the board elected to leave the rate the same as the previous year.

“We will continue to do everything possible to balance the needs of our district with the resources available so that our students receive the very best,” said Superintendent Charles Morton. “We strive to be fiscally responsible and sensitive to the community at large.”

Total valuation of property in the district declined slightly compared to the prior year, dropping from $112,712,089 to $110,604,987. However, it did not result in drastic changes to the compensating rate allowing the district to elect to keep the rate flat, according to the districts press release.

Morton informed the board that local taxes account for roughly 7 percent of the districts nearly $7 million annual budget and is critical to the operation of daily services.

“Our collection rates are generally very good and we appreciate the shared value of a quality education that our community has,” Morton said. “Every student deserves the best opportunity moving forward.”

The board also exempted taxation on aircraft and watercraft, while also setting the motor vehicle rate at 52.3 cents.