St. Lucie County School Board OKs lower tax rate, approves $523 million operating budget

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Homeowners likely will be paying higher school taxes in 2024-2025, despite a lower tax rate adopted this month.

The School Board unanimously adopted a tax rate of $6.25 per $1,000 of assessed property value. That means the owner of a $250,000 home would pay $1,562.50 in school taxes. It's a slightly lower rate than the $6.41 rate approved for the 2023-2024 budget.

Because of increased property values this year, a homeowner's property tax bill could be higher than last year, depending on how the property was assessed. St. Lucie County's taxable property value is $46.8 billion.

The approved tax rate is about 3.8% higher than the rollback rate of $6.02, which is what the district would assess to bring in the same revenue as the current year, district Chief Financial Officer Michelle Thomas told the board last week.

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The tax is expected to generate about $281 million, about 54% of the district's $523 million operating budget. The district's total budget, including capital outlay, food service and special funds is about $1.2 billion, Thomas said.

Colleen Wixon is the education reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers. She covers school districts in Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie counties.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: St. Lucie County School Board gives final OK to tax rate, budget