Santa Fe Public Schools is asking voters to renew its Senate Bill 9 mill levy, which will generate about $12.7 million per year for six years.

One mill equals $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value ($2 for a 2-mill levy). Assessed value is one-third of a property's market value. The election will be Feb. 7.

Revenues from the 2-mill levy are used to update technology, buy computers, improve libraries, provide playground and physical-education equipment and musical instruments, and perform minor repairs (roofing, tiling, lighting) to existing school facilities. The levy also provides funding for emergency maintenance within schools. None of the money can be used to pay salaries of school employees.

"These funds allow every school to have a fully functional technical plan in place to address the infrastructure," said Bobbie Gutierrez, superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools. "Every classroom would receive a document camera, an interactive white board and an overhead projector."

Technology improvements account for about 32 percent of the 2-mill levy, with another 54 percent being invested in districtwide repairs and maintenance.

In addition, 7 percent will go toward school-ground improvements, 3 percent toward furniture, supplies and equipment, 3 percent for small projects at each school site and 1 percent toward activity vehicle upgrades or purchases.

Gutierrez stressed that the money will benefit more than 14,000 students in all Santa Fe schools, including the district's alternative high school and early childhood center, the four district charter schools and the state-chartered New Mexico School for the Arts.

But Santa Fe Public Schools will receive about 89 percent of the overall mill.

Passage of the 2-mill levy will keep funding the same as in previous years. It will not raise taxes. But Deputy Assessor Gary Perez, of the Santa Fe County Assessor's Office, pointed out that property-tax rates may go up for other reasons over the next six years.

The SB 9 referred to in this election should not to be confused with the recent SB 9 bill introduced by Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, in this year's legislative session. Wirth's bill would lower the corporate income tax for New Mexico businesses and would require multistate corporations to file a "combined return" in order to, as Wirth put it in an email, "level the playing field for New Mexico businesses."

Visit sfps.info and click on the link provided on the home page to access the district's presentation on the mill levy election.

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.