JCPS to host public hearing over property tax rate increases Tuesday night

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Public Schools will consider raising property taxes.

The increase could be up to 4.8% or up to 80 cents per $100 of assessed property.

If you take the average home price in Jefferson County, $225,000, the average person could expect to pay $82 more in property taxes.

In the meeting notice posted Friday, the district said Superintendent Marty Pollio recommends the Jefferson County Board of Education approve the new rate of "at most" 80 cents on real property and "at most" 80 cents on personal property for the next fiscal year, 2023-24.

The current rate for fiscal year 2022-23 is 76.3 cents on real property and 76.8 cents on personal property.

A district's spokesperson said it could be lower than 80 cents, as it is waiting to receive final property assessment values.

"I'm about to retire, my husband is already retired. It's going to be a burden again, we just had the big increase and I don't know what it's going to do to us this time," Jefferson County resident Patty Barnes said.

Board members took a politically sensitive vote in 2020 to raise the rate by nearly 10% to 80.6 cents, a move that survived a legal challenge that went to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

The board lowered the rate for two years because of a 1979 Kentucky law that generally limits the increases that local governments can receive from property taxes to 4% per year. If school districts want to collect more than a 4% increase, the rate they set becomes subject to a public recall vote.

That law is what allowed the public to challenge the 2020 increase. It will allow the public to challenge this proposed increase as well.

Any increase could be subject to recall because the rate they have currently would result in 4% increase in revenue.

A public meeting will be held about the proposal Tuesday, June 20, at 5:30 p.m. The school board will then take a vote.