Vote No to More Taxes; Against the Levy
Just the surplus from the Excess Levy this past fiscal year covered all teaching and service personnel not covered by state funding, plus the teachers’ levy bonus. Where did the other $17 million plus designated for salaries go?
The current School Excess Levy in Jefferson County West Virginia was voted in on November 3, 2020 and runs from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2026 and raises at least $22,412,937 per year, or $2720 per student EXTRA!
Now the Jefferson County Board of Education wants us to pay $25,427,656 per year for the next School Excess Levy, which, if not defeated on November 5, 2024, will take effect from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2031.
The accounting for what our tax dollars are spent on is very opaque. I believe in the necessity of transparency, honesty and accountability on the part of our Board of Education.Since the Board of Education cannot detail clearly where our tax dollars have gone, the next Excess Levy should not be approved.
According to the limited data which was provided by Superintendent Chuck Bishop, teacher and service personnel salaries account for about 16% of the total excess levy amount collect for the 2023 fiscal year, which was $27,724,340, or $5,296,684 more than the projected $22,412,937. Only 39 teaching positions, out of 559 total positions, and 0.4 (yes, less than one) nurses, school counselors or attendance workers, plus 70 service personnel out of 394 total are paid out of levy funds.
But the county does not distinguish between the regular school levy funds, which are $330 per $1000 of property taxes collected, and the excess levy funds, which are another $391 for every $1000 of property tax collected. This means that those 39 teachers, 0.4 nurses and counselors and 70 service personnel are also funded by County school funds that will be available even when the Excess Levy does not pass. And only $800 of Excess Levy funds per year are paid to a teacher with five years’ experience and a bachelor’s degree, or less than two (2) percent of all Excess Levy funds collected, in total, goes to teachers.
The extra amount collected of $5,296,684 above the projected amount of $22,412.937 in itself could have paid for all of the personnel not covered by the state formula, the cost of which was about $4.5 million. Yet the Excess Levy collected $21,650,284 for salaries. And remember that salaries not covered by the state are also paid from the regular County School Levy (labeled “School Current” on your property tax bill). So, where did the other $17,412,937 of excess levy salary support go, considering that only some $420,000 went to support teacher salaries and about $4.5 million from all levy funds, both excess and county current, went to pay teachers and other personnel not covered by the state formula?
No doubt, the bloated Jefferson County Schools central office staff of 44 received a good portion of the excess levy funds. A new state law requires the Board of Education to make available to anyone who asks a list of all employees’ salaries, which was due on September 30, 2024. Yet the Board of Education and the Superintendent have not made that list available as of October 25, 2024. What are they hiding? Maybe the $9000 average bonuses per central office employee, that increase every year and continue perpetually, that the Board of Education granted to central office staff in 2020? As you can see, there is a severe lack of transparency in the spending of our tax dollars.
The bloated central office staff has 44 personnel, up six personnel since 2020. Yet, school enrollment has declined by 715 students, or 8 percent since the 2019 to 2020 school year. The total school budget then was $118,000,0000, but now for the 2023-2034 fiscal year it was 127,691505, up 8 percent for 8 percent less students.
In fiscal 2025, the Board of Education wants to increase the budget even further, in spite of no increase in enrollment, and lackluster student performance, with 74 percent of high school students not proficient in math, and 38 percent not proficient in reading.
Vote no to more taxes, and AGAINST THE LEVY.
More information about the School Excess Levy in Jefferson County, West Virginia: visionroot.org/levy.
3 replies on “Vote Against the (School Excess) Levy”
I have many questions and suspicions about the School Taxes and I am against forcing home owners to pay these massive taxes I am a disabled person I live off a Fixed income and they are not fair to me and others who are in the same boat , if they needed funding they could of taxed Corporations and asked for help funding schools Id bet many would help since it will help them to gain future employees and they could add a fee or tax on Cable TV bills this way all those who has it pays for it ,the way it is now puts a Heavy unreasonable burden on Home owners I do not know if Commercial real estate owners pay this same tax or they don’t if they don’t its even more unfair cable TV subscribers are more in number than home owners since some homes have rental space and business some subscribe to CATV and buildings with multi apartments have renters who would pay for it instead of hitting home owners only , I voted against the levy but who knows I seen somewhere many did which hurts us I do not approve of destroying someone just to pay for something that we don’t know what its really being used for and to pass the responsibility of it to someone who does not need it or uses it it should go to those who need it use, we are paying for illegals ? or something else I feel something is wrong with this set up how it is now forcing those who cant pay for the excessive tax on those who cant pay perhaps they want our homes its what I suspect , I would like to speak about this with someone who can help and put an end to it this tax can be moved to some other way to fund it Please do not let Jefferson County become a corrupt super expensive Hell Hole like NYC where Homes are valued in the Millions of dollars and are crap it was the doing of the government wanting people to leave the area and too collect more tax income this is what happened in NYC its Unlivable unaffordable full of criminal’s and victims homeless people rents super high because of artificial property value increases over the decades this is the end result .
1 thing sticks out about this vote passing is why is this vote created in way that allows people who do not own property to be allowed to vote for this levy that will hurt those who own property and some may not need /use those schools this is not fair for people who are owners to be paying while others do not pay a cent for this Tax-levy Home owners are left holding the Bag while others may want it and benefit from it but are not taxed by this is , this needs to be recalled have those who are not home owner should be taxed for this schools tax not the home owners should not be , it should be a more broad tax if they really need that much money I doubt they are honest I believe they are committing crimes and hurting purposely home owners they ask for more money than they would need if this was a honest non criminal tax ,but since they ignore requests on what they spend it on its a crime some sort of money laundering op and they intentionally are hurting home owners likely to get their homes for those who cant pay I am forced to pay nearly $1800s just for these school taxes its not the whole tax for me my property taxes were raised 3x in the last 3 years I fear 2024 they will raise the tax to force me out I live on a Fixed income of $1840 a month now tell me this isn’t a crime and their are not many options to fight it its abusing the system I want a refund with %s this has to stop . I am disabled for over 22 years it says it on my documents and they ignored it the Tax accessors office and making me pay more each year I made phone calls to the main offices in WV capital I was told this document would been accepted ,in Charles town its not so something is real bad here with these taxes and there is no way to remove the Tax accessor via elections its just that one with no one running against its just like Corrupt NYC NY states races for Judges and other with no one running against them this is how we lose our freedom and rights our homes to abusive govt who is Uncountable cant be sued or jailed removed etc..
I wonder how many of the students enrolled in Jefferson county Schools Actually live in the County and how many are actual American Citizens