Just a week before the Riverview School Board is set to vote on the district’s 2026-27 spending plan, two options are being considered for the final budget.

Both include property tax increases.

The current tax rate is 25.50 mills.

On May 18, the board unanimously approved a proposed budget that included a 0.3294-mill tax hike to support additional staffing in elementary STEM and junior-senior high school computer science.

The money generated by the tax hike would be used to close a $235,000 deficit. The proposal projects about $29.6 million in revenue and expenditures.

The tax hike would mean the owner of a property at the median assessed value of $155,500 would see a $51 increase on their real estate tax bill.

But a major renovation project proposed by district officials is under consideration, and school officials are discussing taking out a bond issue to cover the $10.2 million and $10.9 million project.

The project could possibly call for further tax increases for next school year’s budget and beyond.

“If a bond issue was approved, the first proposed bond issue payment for the 2026-27 school year would be a portion of the interest due for the remainder of the year,” Sheila Lubert, the district’s director of finance and operations, said at Monday’s school board agenda meeting. That would cost close to $128,000.

Any tax increase to start paying for a potential bond issue would be on top of the already proposed 1.29% increase.

Lubert said, by increasing taxes to the Act 1 Index limit, 3.5%, with the bond issue, the millage rate could increase by 0.8925, about a $139 increase.

The 0.8925-mill option would not only close the gap but increase revenues to a little over $30 million.

“That net differential would be a little over $274,000 that we could put into the fund balance to cover future years of that bond issue,” Lubert said.

If either proposal is passed, this would be the fifth year in a row the district has decided to raise property taxes.

The board did not indicate which way members are leaning.

English and Paris said a final budget and any possible tax increases related to the project will be voted on at the June 8 board meeting at 7 p.m. in the Riverview Jr.-Sr. High School library.

About the proposed tax hike

This is what the tax increase would mean for a homeowner in Riverview School District with a median assessed property value of $155,500:

Current tax rate: 25.50 mills

Current tax bill: $3,965

Proposed tax rate: 25.8294 mills

Proposed tax bill: $4,016

Tax increase: $51.22

Act 1 Index tax rate: 26.3925

Act 1 Index tax bill: $4,104

Tax increase: $139

Coming up

Who: Riverview School Board

What: Public voting meeting for the 2026-27 district budget

Where: Riverview Jr-Sr High School library

When: 7 p.m. Monday