Rochester, MN  (KROC AM News) - The Rochester School Board voted unanimously Tuesday evening to set the school district’s 2016 property tax levy at $49.5 million.

The board had the option of setting the levy as high as $52.7 million after the State Department of Education recalculated the district’s maximum levy due to an over $400 million dollar increase in Rochester’s tax base during the past year. That figure included revenues from a $164 dollar per student school board operating levy that voters were told would not be assessed if the referendum passed in November.

The School Board voted to honor that commitment and adopted a levy that is lower than the maximum allowed. That means the tax increase on a home valued at $200,000 will be almost $50 dollars a year below the figure quoted by school officials during the run-up to the November referendum.

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