Garfield RE-2 School Bonds and Tax Extension

Garfield School District RE-2 voters approved a bond redemption tax in 2006, and the district still receives it. Ballot Issue 4B lets the district sell up to $118 million in general obligation bonds, with a repayment cost of up to $225 million, and extends that tax to repay them. In a September 25 column in the Post Independent, Superintendent Kirk Banghart wrote that 4B "would not raise taxes" and would extend the district's existing bonds.

The district's annual financial report for the year ended June 30, 2025, lists six series of general obligation bonds outstanding, all paid from its Bond Redemption Fund. The last of them matures in 2028. After that, the remaining borrowing in the report is certificates of participation, a lease financing the district issued in 2023 for energy-saving upgrades, which mature in 2043 and are paid from its general fund. For tax year 2025 the state Division of Property Taxation lists the bond levy at 10.61 mills and calculates its revenue at about $9.1 million. The yearly tax cap in 4B, $9.2 million, sits just above that figure.

The tax has no mill-rate limit; the rate is whatever produces each year's principal, interest and reserves, up to the dollar cap. Within the question's limits, the Board of Education sets when the bonds are sold, the interest they bear, when they mature, whether they can be redeemed early, and whether they sell at, above or below face value. The question names no final repayment year. Under the board's resolution, the district may sell the bonds at one time or in several sales, and neither a partial sale nor the passage of time reduces what remains authorized.

The question lists projects "to the extent of available funds": a new access road at Rifle High School; renovated science classrooms there, with outdated computer labs converted to career and engineering labs; an addition and renovations at Coal Ridge High School for trades, agriculture, athletics and performing arts; a new early learning center; acquiring and building rental housing for teachers and staff in Rifle, Silt and New Castle; and upgrades to district-wide technology. One yes or no vote decides the whole list. The Post Independent reported that teachers and staff would pay below-market rent in the housing units. The paper also reported Banghart as saying every listed project will be completed and that the district will adjust the scope of individual projects if budgets run short.

The board referred 4A and 4B on August 26, 2026. Under its resolution, a majority of the votes cast on each question decides that question alone. Bond proceeds from 4B go only to capital assets; board member Cassie Haskell said, "We can't use the bond for salaries."