Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify that the finance committee is recommending that the Board of Education does not lower the district’s tax rate. 

The Mehlville School District Finance Committee is recommending that the Board of Education does not “roll down” the district’s tax rate ahead of tax rate hearings next month.

Kevin Summers, who sits on the district’s Finance Committee, told the Board of Education on Aug. 17 that the committee was recommending against rolling down the district’s tax rate when the board goes to set the levy in September at its annual tax rate hearing.

The district’s assessed valuation climbed over 15% in this year’s reassessments, which occur every-odd numbered year. Assessments are not finalized until September, and the Hancock Amendment means that school districts with large value spikes are limited from any kind of windfall beyond the inflation rate.

Summers added that revenue predictions for fiscal year 2024 had already dropped $2 million due to the fact that assessed values dropped $58 million in July from when they were first released.

“The county will eventually give us the final number and we’ll use that to help set the tax rate,” Summer said.

“Our recommendation from where we stand today, because we don’t know where our budget is going to end up, because of the fact that there are a lot of capital needs … our assessment is to not roll back the tax rate in September,” Summers added. “We think as a committee, if we were to do that, we would have to turn around and immediately consider issuing a bond issue.”

The district will set its final tax rates by the end of September.