UPDATE: The bond election passed with 67.1% of the vote. It needed a supermajority of 66.7% to pass. With a total of 2,068, it came down to a handful of votes.

By David Goerg

REXBURG, Idaho—A new group in Rexburg, Madison Informed Citizens, recently hosted a question and answer session with officials from Madison School District 321 about the upcoming Tuesday, March 8 school bond election.

SCHOOL BOND VOTE

At MIC’s meeting (watch here), held March 2, there were over a dozen people in attendance. The group invited Randy Lords, District 321’s superintendent and Kevin Howell, the school board chair, to answer questions from the community about a new bond for school development. The $25.5 million bond in question is up for a vote on March 8th, this coming Tuesday. Passage of the bond election requires a supermajority of 66.7% of voters in favor.

The meeting was very civil and informative, with questions posed to Lords and Howell from local participants, most of whom were concerned about the increase in property taxes the new bond would require.

If successful, the school bond would require yearly property taxes of $425 for every $100,000 of assessed value of a home. For example, a home worth $200,000 would pay $850 per year towards this bond. Lords and Howell were adamant that the current levy amount of $4.25 per $1,000 of assessed value will remain the same.

In a Jan. 11 statement on the MSD 321 Facebook page, district officials said, “Perhaps the best news for all patrons regarding this bond is that due to market and community growth, we are WELL under our bonding capacity of 80 million. Therefore, the school portion of your property tax levy rate will remain $4.25 per thousand of assessed taxable value.”

At the MIC meeting, Lords emphasized that Madison County is growing at a much higher rate than it has in the past, creating the need for a new elementary school and additions to the junior high.

“This year alone, we added over 375 new students to the Madison school district,” Lords said. “I know that one of the questions that comes up, one of the concerns that we think a lot about, is bonds. Okay, what
can I borrow for today? Going for school bonds is almost as bad as having to hire a football or basketball coach. When I have a meeting on math curriculum, I may have three people in the audience, but when
we’re looking for a new football or basketball coach and we’ve got standing room only.”

One attendee pointed to three existing bonds and requested specific information about the remaining repayment period.

“We have the original $40.6 million high school bond, and that’s got three years left on it,” said Lords. Lords also clarified that another bond from 2008 had six years of repayment left, and the most recent
bond, the Burton extension, had 12 years remaining.

“If this doesn’t pass, we’ve got to come back and do it again,” said Howell. “There is no other option on this bond.”

MADISON INFORMED CITIZENS MEETINGS

MIC meets regularly in the County Commissioners’ room at the Madison County Courthouse. Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.

The group was organized by Shane Ruebush, a Rexburg local with over 12 years of experience in local government. Ruebush recently spoke with Rexburg Commons about the origins and goals of MIC.

“Madison Informed Citizens is a group of people that are interested in learning more about local government and understanding it, and participating in it to make it better,” said Rubuesh. “Originally,
there were several citizens who were concerned about what was going on with local government. It started out as a watchdog group, and it still could be considered that. But over time, what was most apparent was the need for local citizens to participate in meetings and be informed about what’s going on.”

Participation in the Madison Informed Citizens group is completely open—everyone from the local area is invited to attend, and Ruebush expects that the new group will continue to grow.

The general format of MIC’s monthly meeting begins with reports from local citizens who have attended local government meetings throughout the past month.

“We ask for volunteers to attend local [government] meetings, and then people can come back and report on what they learned over the past month,” said Ruebush. “After we’ve listened to the reports, we open it up for discussion on any other issue people might have.”

Ruebush believes locals citizens will find unexpected value participating in MIC.

“We have learned that a lot of public officials are trying and they can do better with support from the public,” said Ruebush. “Any individual who begins attending meetings regularly starts to understand how much of a difficulty it is to be in public service, and appreciate the work that the individuals are doing, even if it’s not done to the highest to the standard that we might hope for.”