Petition Currently Haults USD 480 Mill Levy Increase

The Seward County Clerk’s office informed USD 480 Central Office on Tuesday that the capital outlay petition submitted by a local member of the community in Liberal has been certified.

The county clerkź??s office confirmed with the district that there were 950 signatures certified and only 847 were needed. There were 1,040 signatures total that were turned in. This will currently freeze the capital outlay mill levy for 2009-10, which voids the 2.488 mill levy increase, which was a tax increase that the board of education approved back on August 10.

Back on July 6, the board voted to approve a capital outlay resolution that is done every five years that they (the board) can not exceed 8 mills. However, even with the mill levy increase that the board approved on August 10, the mill levy still was set to be a little over 4 mills for the 2009-10 school term.

The petition that now freezes the mill levy for the 2009-10 term was widely circulated throughout Liberal over the last few weeks. Local resident Steve Helm began the petition. It was also available to sign at Steve Brooks law office and advertised in the newspapers. The petition was also was passed around at last week’s Jerry Moran town hall meeting that had over 150 people in attendance

The USD 480 Board of Education will now have to decide to either hold a special election or adopt a different capital outlay resolution.