Behind the Ballot: District 49 Mill Levy Override

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Falcon School District 49 is seeking to override its current mill levy to get more money for teacher pay by increasing taxes for property owners in the area.

If passed, the mill levy override would allow for D49 to give teachers raises of 7% a year for seven years.

"The MLO will give us a resource that we don't currently have," said District 49 Superintendent Peter Hilts. "It will also allow us to compete well with our neighbors to the west who have much more local funding than District 49."

Breaking down the estimated costs for property owners, those with property assessed at $200,000 would pay around $50 a month, those with property assessed at $300,000 would pay around $75 a month, and for property appraised at $400,000, owners are estimated to pay over a hundred dollars a month.

"It's just not right to ask people to give up more of the money that they need for their families, for groceries, for cars, for bills to give to boards and administration that haven't done their due diligence in trying to find ways to save money in the budget," said former Moms for Liberty chair Darcy Schoening.

Schoening has vocally opposed both mill levy overrides on the November ballot — the one in District 20 and in D49.

"It's very similar, in fact D49 actually has a higher rate of administrative pay and waste that's going on in that district than 20 does," said Schoening.

She believes District 49 needs to better allocate their existing resources before burdening taxpayers.

However, District 49 said they've been as clear and transparent as they can to explain the purpose of this ballot measure.

"We also have a great track record of submitting all of our MLO spending to a citizen's oversight committee," said Hilts. "So we have proven that we will do what we say with the resources provided by our local community."

More information on the MLO from Falcon School District 49 can be found here.