Property taxpayers in the Bowling Green Independent School District will see an increase on their tax bills that’s lower than the rate the district’s board of education previously set in June.

Under the new rate approved by the school board Monday, taxpayers will pay 82.8 cents per every $100 of real and personal property value, up from the current rate of 78.1 cents. The previous rate set by the board in June was 83.5 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Superintendent Gary Fields said part of the increase will go toward improvements at Bowling Green High School.

“That planning process is ongoing, and we’ll be hopefully breaking ground next spring,” he said. “We really appreciate the community’s willingness to allow us to have that extra nickel of taxes to build a facility that will allow us to educate our kids for the next 50 years.”

Fields also said part of the money will go toward funding an increase in fixed costs from mandatory increased contributions to the County Employees Retirement System. Currently, the district contributes 19.18 percent of classified employees salaries to the system for their retirement. That is proposed by the state to increase to 28.86 percent next year, amounting to an increase of roughly $650,000.

“This isn’t giving us any extra money to play with,” Fields said.

“It’s really just covering what we know is coming.”

Jeff Herron, the district’s finance officer, explained during the board meeting that the change in the tax rate reflects an increase in property assessments. As a result, the district will lose some money in funding through the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky program, which is the main revenue stream for public schools.

“The way the SEEK formula works is as (property value) assessments increase, the funding decreases,” he told the board.

The new tax rate will bring in nearly $12 million in revenue, he said.

According to an agenda for the meeting, 66.3 cents per $100 of the rate will go toward the district’s general fund, while 16.5 cents per $100 will go to the district’s building fund.

Aging facilities and increased pension payout costs aren’t the only hurdles the district has to clear, however. Fields received news Friday from Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt, who addressed all Kentucky’s superintendents in an emergency conference call, that the Kentucky Department of Education would receive a $69 million cut for the current fiscal year.

The cut was a result of the Gov. Matt Bevin administration asking for a cut in most state agencies by roughly 17 percent this fiscal year. The state would not touch SEEK funding, but that doesn’t mean school districts won’t be challenged, Fields said.

“Commissioner Pruitt was adamant in his conference call Friday that he was not going to touch SEEK funding, but you know in the big picture, it doesn’t matter what funding source he touches, it’s going to hurt because he has to come up with $69 million across the state.”

Fields said there could be a cut as large as $450,000 for the district in the current school year. That creates a problem for districts that have already signed contracts with employees and can’t lay them off, he said.

“It’s going to be really difficult to decide ‘Ok, what haven’t we spent money on,’ ” he said, whether that’s in professional development, textbooks or other areas.

All of this is on top of the state’s troubled pension system, which is at least $33 billion short of paying retirement benefits for state workers, police officers, firefighters and public school teachers over the next 30 years, according to The Associated Press.

Going forward, Fields said teachers and classified employees will need to make their voices heard to lawmakers. It isn’t about pointing fingers or picking sides, he said.

“Ultimately, we’re talking about kids here,” he said.