42-17151. County, municipal, community college and school tax levy

A. On or before the third Monday in August each year, the governing body of each county, city, town, community college district and school district shall:

1. Fix, levy and assess the amount to be raised from primary property taxation and secondary property taxation. This amount, plus all other sources of revenue, as estimated, and restricted and unrestricted unencumbered balances from the preceding fiscal year, shall equal the total of amounts proposed to be spent in the budget for the current fiscal year.

2. Designate the amounts to be levied for each purpose appearing in the adopted budget.

3. Fix and determine a primary property tax rate and a secondary property tax rate, each rounded to four decimal places on each one hundred dollars of taxable property shown by the finally equalized valuations of property, less exemptions, that appear on the tax rolls for the fiscal year, as determined by the assessor on or before February 10 of the tax year pursuant to section 42-17052, and that when extended on those valuations will produce, in the aggregate, the entire amount to be raised by direct taxation for that year. Amounts levied for debt service on bonds payable from the secondary tax are and shall be considered special revenues of the county, city, town or district, shall be kept in a special, segregated fund, are not and shall not be general property taxes and may not be used for any other purpose of the county, city, town or district.

B. The governing body of a county, city, town or community college district shall not fix, levy or assess an amount of primary property taxes in excess of the amount permitted by section 42-17051, subsection A, paragraph 7 or section 42-17005 as determined by the property tax oversight commission.

C. The governing board of a common school district, a high school district or a unified school district shall not fix, levy or assess a primary property tax rate higher than the current year's rate if the district meets both of the following criteria, as determined by the property tax oversight commission:

1. The total primary property taxes levied for all taxing jurisdictions on at least one-half of the residential property of the district exceed the limitation described in section 15-972, subsection E.

2. The school district primary property tax rate exceeds one hundred fifty per cent of the applicable qualifying tax rate pursuant to section 41-1276.

D. No later than December 31, the property tax oversight commission shall notify those school districts that meet the criteria described in subsection C of this section and the county school superintendents and boards of supervisors of the counties in which the school districts are located.

E. Within three days after the final levies are determined for a county, city, town or community college district, the chief county fiscal officer shall notify the property tax oversight commission of the amount of the primary property tax levied.

F. Pursuant to section 15-465.01, subsection E, an accommodation school governing board shall not levy a primary or secondary property tax. The property tax oversight commission shall consider any amount of property tax levied by a county in support of an accommodation school to be part of the county's primary levy for the purposes of determining the county's compliance with subsection B of this section.