Tax hike will help cover merit-pay costs

Taxes are going back up to pay for merit raises for Burnsville-Eagan-Savage teachers.

Property taxpayers in the school district will kick in $891,856 of the $2.5 million budgeted for Pro-Pay, the local version of Minnesota's Q-Comp program intended to reward exemplary teachers. The state pays the balance.

Effective Jan. 1, the tax hike will reverse a credit property owners received in 2012 because the district and its teachers' union failed to agree on a merit pay system for the current school year.

The district had a merit-pay plan and collected taxes to help pay for it before that.

This year's credit amounted to about 2.85 percent of the overall tax levy for Burnsville-Eagan-Savage schools, said Lisa Rider, the district's executive director for business services.

Rider said she could not say how much any given taxpayer's bill would increase.

BILL CRUM