Will our gym continue to be a beehive of community activity?

This article was written by Montezuma resident Keith Brake and can be found at http://www.clownsiniowa.com/:


Will our gym continue to be a beehive of community activity? Will it have an "M" in front
during future graduations?

Versteeg discusses $$ aspects of bond issue
Members of the Support M.O.N.T.E. team have been receiving a lot of input during their meetings with community residents about the Sept. 14 school bond election.

Superintendent Dave Versteeg has responsded, focusing on three areas that will be impacted by the result of the election: Financial, community and students.

We will examine financial aspects in this piece.
FINANCIAL POINTS
1) "First, there is a point of clarification," Versteeg said. "I have heard many of us say that property taxes will go up $4.05 (per $1,000 assessed valuation) to raise the $11.5 million needed for the project. That is not a known fact yet," he said. "The HIGHEST it can be is $4.05. It is going to be somewhere BETWEEN $2.80 and $4.05. We have used $4.05 as the highest (worst) case scenario. If we issued the bonds tomorrow we would probably get 3.5% interest and that would cause the average levy rate to increase by $3.62. Is is OK to use $4.05, (but illustrative purposes) but it will probably be lower."

2) "Approximately 40% or $6.8 million of the estimated costs of the current proposed plan is for infrastructure or the "guts" of the building, i.e. roofs, mechanical (including geothermal heating and cooling), plumbing, electrical, fire protection, communication and technology."

3) "If the doomsaysers are correct and we aren't going to have a school in 20 years (before the bonds are paid off), then we will all be in a different school district and still paying property taxes for a school that is not 'ours' AND the property taxes will be higher than we currently pay," Versteeg said.

"If would be better to vote 'yes' to make our school a place that can keep the students we have and possibly grow (if the community steps up with housing and other issues) and have more say on what happens instead of being reorganized with any of our neighbors. Bigger schools are not always better schools," Versteeg said. "Check the Frequently Asked Questions brochure for a tax rate comparison."

4) "Have you imagined what could happen to the value of your property if there wasn't a school in our community? You have eliminated a sector of potential buyers for your property and probably lowered the value of your property. BUT your taxes would be lower."

5) "To build a new, 100,000-square-foot building to replace our existing facilities would cost approximately $225 per square foot. That figures comes from Shive-Hattery. The proposed plan comes at a cost of about $155 per square foot. It is a sound, reasonable, responsible, etc., plan."

6) "This is the time to pay for this project," Versteeg said. "To wait will only increase the cost. We are in the beginning of an economic recovery and by the time this bond issue is passed and we really have to pay for it, things will be much better. But to wait will only increase the cost and the main reason people don't want to vote for it. For example. . .
a) "Interest rates: According to Piper Jaffray (they sell public bonds), 20-year general obligation bonds (like what we are going to sell) were recently sold for 3.5% interest. We probably won't get 3.5% interest because it is hard to imagine interest rates going any lower, but you never know these days. Here is a (chart) to explain why waiting could cost millions of dollars in interest alone:"

Interest rate - 3.5%. Average property tax rate increase $3.62/1,000 of assessed valuation. Interest paid over 20 years - $4,683,000.
Interest - 3.75%. Tax increase - $3.70. Interest paid - $5,050,000.
Interest - 4.0%. Tax increase - $3.78. Interest paid - $5,286,000.
Interest - 4.25%. Tax increase - $3.87. Interest paid - $5,694,000.
Interest - 4.5%. Tax increase - $3.95. Interest paid - $6,181,000.
Interest - 4.75%. Tax increase - $4.04. Interest paid - $6,955,000.

b) "Bids - project costs: The same arguments for interest rates applies to the costs of construction," Versteeg said. "Bids are currently coming in at 10% to 15% lower than architect estimates. Construction bids are currently very competitive. To wait will only increase the cost of construction and materials."