School Bonding Tax Estimate Is Lowered

If the $4.9 Siillion bond issue for construction of a fifth junior high is approved June 9, the expected increase in debt service millage next year for Ann Arbor School District voters would be .09 a mili instead of .40 of a mili, the Ann Arbor Board of Education was told this week. The .40 figure had been announced two weeks ago. School Supt. W. Scott Westerman Jr. said the reduction is the result of the expansión of the tax base and the paying off of other bond issues. The total debt service millage -levied in 1968-69 was 3.33 milis. In 1969-70, the amount expected to be levied ís 3.42 milis, instead of 3.73 milis as anticipated. Westerman stressed the actual cost of the bond issue itself would be about 58 cents per $1,000 of state equalized valuation (SEV), but the increase over the 1968-69 tax bill if thel bond issue is successful would be only 9 cents per $1,000 to SEV - ::t year. Westerman said the amount of the increase in successive years would depend on a number of factors, including ïncreases in the tax base. If both the bonding and 6.67mill proposal for operations are successful June 9, it would mean an incraase over the 1968-69 j tax bifl of $3.39 per $1,000 of SEV, or $37.29 next year for teh average Ann Arbor homeowner whose house is assessed at $11,000. (Unül recently, the "average" home in Ann Arbor had been listed at $10,000 by the assessor's office.)