If the critical needs bond does not pass, the Agua Fria High School District Will not be able to fund a new high school to eliminate overcrowding in current facilities, and will not be able to provide all of the required maintenance and facility updates that are needed at our school and operational facilities including in the area of safety and security.  In addition, student and staff technology needs will not be met, and aging school buses will not be replaced.

With voter approval, public school districts may issue bonds (which are purchased by investors) to fund projects that have a useful life longer than five years. Examples include building new schools, building improvements (HVAC, roof, and lighting), technology, school buses or equipment, to name a few. Bonds are repaid over a set period of time. 

Overrides are used to provide additional funding to support what happens inside school or classrooms (teaching, learning and operations). Overrides are approved for a term of 7 years. Many school districts will ask voters to approve a renewal in year 4 or 5 of an override to maintain a consistent level of funding. If not renewed, the amount decreases by 1/3 in the 6th year and 2/3 in the 7th year. 

Bonds and overrides are voter-approved initiatives that generate additional tax revenue to fund projects and operations for local school districts. Bonds and overrides are tools that a local community can use to provide funds for their local schools above and beyond what the state provides. 

Bonds and overrides provide local funding for schools. Over the past few years, our schools have weathered significant state funding cuts. Meanwhile, Arizona’s teachers and students have been asked to meet higher expectations and do more with less. 

School governing boards call for an election and a local stakeholder committee is formed. Often these groups are called political action committees (PACs), but they can also be just a group of volunteers who come together to support the election. Schools can provide limited factual information about the bond or override and are not allowed to influence the outcome of the election. The stakeholder committee gets the word out and builds support for the election. 

• When the funding provided by the state is not enough to meet the needs of all students, the state allows school districts to ask for local support through bonds and overrides. This requires Governing Board approval to place the initiative on the ballot for community approval by vote in an election.
  
  Maintenance and Operations Overrides are used to provide additional funding to support people and programs. School districts may ask for an increase of up to 15 percent of their revenue control limit for a term of seven years from local secondary property taxes. Many districts ask voters to approve a renewal in year four or five of an override to maintain a consistent level of funding. If not renewed, the override amount decreases the school district’s budget by 1/3 in the sixth year, 2/3 in the seventh year, and the funds from the override would be fully eliminated in year eight.
  
  Bonds authorizations are similar to a borrowing threshold that is authorized by the voters and allows a district to sell bonds in incremental amounts up to that threshold to purchase capital items and/or make capital improvements to existing facilities, such as school building renovations or the purchasing of school buses. The funding can only be used to fund projects that have a useful life longer than five years. They are repaid over a set period of time from local secondary property taxes, and the district must provide the community with information on how the dollars are spent, which are currently outlined on our district’s website. Funds from a bond cannot be used for employee compensation.

• Like most school districts in the state, the Agua Fria High School School District has an M&O override in place, which has been approved by voters for over 20 years. The override currently in place funds safety and security employees in our schools as well as providing teacher and staff compensation, helps maintain class sizes, and supports workplace development and other crucial programs. 

The total critical needs bond is for $197,000,000. If approved, the secondary property tax rate is expected to decrease from $.76 to $.75, which means the tax rate will not increase.

To calculate your property taxes, a community member needs the limited property value of their property. Note: This is not the current fair market value of a home that can be found on Zillow or Redfin but rather the Limited Property Value as calculated by the Maricopa County Assessor. This amount can be located on the Property Notice of Valuation that is mailed each year from the Maricopa County Assessor or online by visiting the Maricopa County Assessor website.

Property tax bills consist of many moving parts. Although the calculations are very precise, the design of the system itself leads to fluctuations both slightly up and slightly down each year. This year much of the overall decrease in property tax bills were due to the elimination of the state equalization tax as well as decreases in the primary tax rates for the Agua Fria and Litchfield School Districts.

The tax rate for the bonds did not change from last year to this year. It is steady at $.76 per $100 of net limited assessed valuation. The Agua Fria District has committed to structuring new bonds from a successful passage of the November 2023 bond measure so that this rate will not increase and will slightly decrease. Any slight increase in the total amount paid to the bond is due to an increase in limited taxable property value. Fortunately, due to the passage of proposition 117 the maximum amount that the limited value can increase in any year is only 5%.