At its Aug. 19 meeting, the Wright City School Board held a hearing to set the annual tax rate for the 2026 fiscal year.
The proposed annual rate of $4.4487 per $100 of assessed value remains …
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At its Aug. 19 meeting, the Wright City School Board held a hearing to set the annual tax rate for the 2026 fiscal year.
The proposed annual rate of $4.4487 per $100 of assessed value remains unchanged from fiscal year 2025.
“Every year, at this time, the district does a bunch of calculations, a bunch of paperwork, and we send it to the state,” Board President Austin Jones said. “They calculate the tax rate based upon assessed value.”
After a presentation of the financial figures by District Director of Finance Veronica Klaus, a motion was made to adopt the tax levy at $2.8487, the rate for the capital projects fund at $0.21, and the tax rate levy for the debt service fund at $1.39 to account for the $4.4487 rate.
The motion was carried unanimously by a 6-0 vote, with director Heidi Halleman absent, and the tax rate was officially adopted.
“Every year, we have to reapprove our tax rate,” Klaus said. “The tax rate is what drives our local revenues. Historically, our tax rate has been $4.45 (adjusted), and we are proposing the same for FY (fiscal year) ’26. It does look slightly different to FY25 due to the Hancock Amendment.”
The only change came in the allocation of funds to the district’s budget.
While $0.21 of the annual tax rate will still be allocated to the capital projects fund, the general fund will see a decrease from $3.24 to $2.85, while the debt service fund will see an increase from $1.00 in FY25 to $1.39.
“The debt services fund is what pays for our bonds,” Klaus said. “Bonds pay for our buildings. We were able to build our new high school with zero-tax-rate-increase to our patrons (because of the bonds).”
With a 100 percent collection rate of taxes, the district would receive $16.77 million for its annual budget based on the percentage of the $377 million assessed property valuation within the district.
“The $377 million is a 23 percent increase over our (assessed value) last year,” Klaus said.
Among other business at the meeting, the board unanimously approved a series of contracts with vendors.
Among the contracts approved by unanimous vote were Creative Therapy, Applied Behavior, TRXC timing, Jet Physical Therapy, BSN Sports, All Encompassing Educations, Solutions Tree Service, Wagner Portrait Group, the Megan Meier Foundation, and interpreter agreements.
Additionally, trips for the softball team to Boonville and Warrensburg were also approved without a dissenting vote.
