Smyrna times., 1957-12-19
SCHOOL TAXES
SUMMARIZED
Smyrna Is One Of Fifteen
Special School Districts In
cluded in State Report
LOCAL RATES REVEALED

The annual school district tax
alton summary, published each
year concerning school district
! taxes within the state has recent
ly been received This summary,
under the editorship of DR.. John
G. Parres, director, and DR.. Paul
H. Johnston, supervisor of re-
search and publications, gives
/ fourteen pages of detailed sum-
maries concerning school taxes in
the state. The report states that
Delaware is divided into SO dis
tricts including S3 State Board
Unit School Systems, Is Special
1 Districts, of which Smyrna is one,
and the city of Wilmington Some
of the SO districts are one room
/ schools and state board colored
schools. Forty-six districts levy
local taxes. Seven years ago only
81 districts collected local reven-
ue. All Special School Districts
levy local taxes and a number of
state school districts with only
elementary schools levy local tax
es. Property taxes are levied on
real estate according to the as
sessed values established by the
county boards of assessment. Cap
itation taxes are levied on all
adults, white or colored, living in
a district. According to this pub
lication, the Smyrna Special
School District has an assessed
evaluation of S9,221 ,068 in 1857.
/ Assessed evaluations in other
special" districts range from al
high of $71, ,721, 300 in Mt. Pleas
ant, to low of $500, ,379 in Har-
rington. Three other special dis
tricts in the state with approxi-
mately the same number of pup
lis to educate as Smyrna had as
sessments as follows: Alexis 1.
DUPONT, 55,00O,OO0; Georgetown,
! $10,182,000; Lewes, S11, 100000. A
one cent property tax in these
districts will raise the following
revenue: Smyrna, $500; Mt. Pleas
ant, $1,000; Harrington $500;
Alexis I. DUPONT, $500; George
town, $1,000; Lewes, LOO. Alex
is I. DUPONT and Smyrna had the
same number of pupils to edu-
cate, however, the revenue raised
in these two districts from local
support included SIT 900 from A.
I. DUPONT to $4,000 from Smyr-
ma. The highest capitation tax
collected this year in the state
was $500; Smyrna's rate is $780,
The highest property tax for
schools was SIS per 500; Smyr-
mas tax is $.33 per $100. 1t is
very difficult to make COMPARE
sons between districts as one can
easily see from the facts given.
One method of comparison is the
per-pupil basis. This method COM
putes how much is available and
collected per pupil in a school
system and compares this with
per-pupil taxation in other dis
tricts. The report shows that on
per-pupil basis, Smyrna's as
sessed evaluation is S7,376.85 per
pupil $3.50. Per-pupil assessed
evaluations range from a high of
$51, ,037.81 to a low of $6,028.41.
The gross yield of combined real
estate and capitation tax for debt
service and current expense for
public school purposes during 1857
shows Smyrna with the lowest
per-pupil tax yield of any Special
School District. Smyrna's per-pup-
il tax yield is $31.81 (for current
expenses and debt service). The
highest per pupil tax is $238.18.
OF the as districts in the state
listed as levying taxes, Smyrna
ranks fifth from the bottom. The
lowest per-pupil tax collected is
$3.50 per-pupil in Bethel (32-
pupil SCHOOL, Interested persons
are invited to visit the school and
examine this data if they wish.
1t may be possible to obtain cop
les from the State Department of
Public Instruction.