Property tax collections and school funding

Seth Blomeley with the Democrat-Gazette writes about yesterday's legislative meeting in Hot Springs, where the amount of property tax collected by each county was discussed. 19 of the 75 counties didn’t respond to recent requests for data from the state Assessment Coordination Department. Our school funding formula assumes that 98% of local property taxes are collected. That amount is entered into a formula to determine how much general revenue must be allocated to each school district in the state.

Act 1218 of 2007 allows the Assessment Coordination Department to withhold state money meant to help counties defray the costs of conducting property reappraisal if certain data is not remitted (read the special language beginning on page 6, line 5).