Property tax payers have more than one reason to celebrate this New Year’s Eve.

On Tuesday, Dec. 14, the Re-1 school board announced to the county commissioners that the school’s total mill levy for the year 2000 will drop 6.033 mills from 1999 to 36.040.

According to Re-1 business manager Jim Riffey, a portion of these savings can be attributed to the 2.7-mill reduction in Re-1’s bond redemption fund.

"This is money that was taken on a six-year payment plan and used to finance the addition and remodeling of the Cortez Middle School," said Riffey.

According to school records, the bond-redemption mill levy has steadily decreased over the last four years of the six year plan.

• 1995: 10.05 mills

• 1996: 11.57 mills

• 1997: 10.75 mills

• 1998: 9.8 mills

• 1999: 7.8 mills

• 2000: 5.1 mills

Had this plan been stretched out over the normal 20 years, it would have cost taxpayers roughly an additional $1 million in interest, Riffey explained.

However, because the taxpayers voted for the shorter, more "fiscally prudent" plan, Dec. 1, 2000, will mark the district’s final payment on the bond.

Bob Cruzan, the county assessor, stated that between 55 and 60 percent of property taxes in Montezuma County will be used to fund the Cortez, Mancos, and Dolores schools.

"This breaks down to $6,584,739 for Re-1, $1,213,409 for Re-4, and $858,450 for Re-6," said Cruzan.

To put this into perspective, Cruzan explained that a residential property owner whose house is assessed at $100,000 would pay $351 in property taxes toward the schools, and of this payment, $49.67 would be put toward the bond redemption fund.

At the same time, a commercial property that is assessed at the same value would pay roughly three times more in property taxes, Cruzan stated.

"Although the schools do take the largest chunk of money out of property taxes (60 percent), when you break down the total figure over the course of an entire school year it doesn’t add up to a whole lot," said Re-1 superintendent Bill Thompson.