ZACHARY - On Thursday, the Zachary Community School District held a meeting to discuss a new tax proposal to raise teacher pay, allot funds for facility repairs and pay for technology while not raising taxes for citizens.

"Instead of asking for any tax increases, what we want to do is ask voters to consider, as we pay off our bond millages on our facilities, as those roll off over time, the board may move some of those millages over for areas like compensation, facility repairs and technology," School Superintendent Ben Necaise said.

Necaise said facility bonds that were approved by voters when the school system was established more than 20 years ago are expected to be paid off around the 2033-2034 school year. As the bond payments decrease, the school system wants to move the additional collected funds to where it is needed most.

"20 years ago, when we founded ourselves as a district, our most important need was facilities and infrastructure. Today, our priority need is our people."

Necaise said the current tax is levied at 36 mills and the school system wants to drop it to 24 mills. For example, a home valued at $250,000 would pay approximately $420 annually. The tax would last 20 years and the school board would vote every year to set the millage.

As of right now, Necaise said there are no set percentages for how the money would be distributed between salaries, facility repairs and technology.

If the proposal does not pass, Necaise said there could be cuts to school programs.

"We would need to cut programming, we would need to add fees to things for parents to pay. Even that little bit of money you would save by reducing the millage in this area, you would make up for by having to pay more fees, lose services or see class sizes go up and other impacts in the classroom," Necaise said.

The school district said it plans to have the proposal on the November 15 ballot.