Taxes for School District of Waupaca property owners will be up in 2016, following last night’s budget approval by the Waupaca School Board. The tax levy of 16.15 million dollars calls for a tax rate of $11.63 per thousand dollars valuation, an increase of $0.47 per thousand or $47 on a $100,000 property. Most of the tax increase is due to a loss of $285,000 loss in state aid, and a slight drop in the district’s equalized property valuation. Waupaca has seen a four million dollar decrease in state aid dollars over the past seven years. Despite that, the district is taxing 1.8 million dollars under the allowable revenue cap, one of only ten districts in the state to tax more than a million under the cap.

Along with approving the 2015-2016 budget, the board also approved to have the administration look into refinancing general obligation bonds from 2006, that are on the books until 2019. Those bonds were taken out at 4% interest rate, but business manager, Carl Hayek, believes the district can re-finance at about 1%, saving the district up to $200,000 per year in the debt levy. The board is hoping to get more concrete numbers at it’s November meeting.