By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Riverside United School District 114 officials hope voters today give them authority to raise money for capital improvements.

The district in Elwood has placed on the ballot a 3.60 mill capital outlay levy authority.

According to the district, Riverside is one of the seven out of 286 Kansas school districts which doesn’t have a capital outlay mill levy. Instead, the district has borrowed money to pay for capital expenses, a practice the Kansas State Department of Education frowns upon.

The ballot issue would give the district authority to use the entire 3.60 mill levy, but it doesn’t have to use the entire amount. School officials say the school board will evaluate needs on a year-by-year basis.

A table issued by the Riverside district states a 3.6 mill increase would raise taxes annually by $20.77 for a home appraised at slightly more than $50,000; $41.62 for a home appraised at $100,500; and $83.56 for a home appraised at slightly more than $200,000.

Commercial property appraised at $84,380 would pay $75.96 more annually and commercial property appraised at slightly more than $250,000 would pay $226.22 more a year.

Agricultural property appraised at around $50,000 would pay $54.11 more a year and farmland appraised at a bit more than $200,000 would pay $216.54 more per year.