The Garden City Telegram
Email this story | Add Your Comment
| Read (0) Comments
Tough choices: Higher taxes, fewer services - Schools
Published 10/4/2008 in News : Education
By EMILY BEHLMANN
Uncertain times call for tough decisions when it comes to crafting budgets, according to leaders at several area school districts.
More often than not heading into the 2009 budget year, those decisions involved increasing the local property taxes residents contribute to their school districts. In some cases, the decisions also involved changes in district operations -- doing the same work with fewer people, operating transportation systems more efficiently and cutting back on supplies funding.
The reason is pretty simple, according to Don Wells, superintendent at Scott County USD 466.
"Our expenses are more expensive," he said.
Wells was referring to expenses including fuel, salaries, health insurance, supplies and more.
Food -- and the cost of transporting that food -- was another item on superintendents' lists of rising expenses.
According to Jim Hardy, superintendent at Leoti USD 467, school districts were warned by state leaders to expect what could be rapidly growing demands on their budgets for the coming year. Plan for a 50-percent increase in fuel costs, a 24-percent increase in food costs and a 15-percent increase in utility costs, they said.
To deal with the higher costs, his board approved a 2-mill increase in the district's tax rate, taking it to 46.455 mills -- an action Hardy said was "tough for our board."
A mill equals $1 for every $1,000 in a property's assessed valuation. An owner of a $100,000 home has an assessed valuation of $11,500, so he or she would pay $11.50 for each mill.
Other places where school district mill levies increased included Cimarron, Copeland, Deerfield, Greeley County, Holcomb, Hugoton, Lakin, Montezuma, Moscow, Satanta, Scott County, Stanton County, Sublette, Syracuse and Ulysses.
"It's mainly a precautionary measure to deal with these volatile energy costs," Bill Wilson, superintendent at Greeley County USD 200, said of his district's 4-mill increase.
The greatest change was in Copeland, where the rate shot up by 50 percent to 69.06 mills. But that was to be expected, as the increase is solely the result of a $4 million bond issue that appeared on April's ballot for replacement of South Gray Junior High School.
The mill levy in Ingalls stayed about the same.
Districts in Dighton, Garden City and Healy all reduced their mill levies, with leaders there saying the reduction was possible partly because of an increase in the communities' assessed valuation, so that more tax dollars come in with every mill.
But a higher assessed valuation isn't a guarantee of lower taxes. In Scott County USD 466, valuation was up about $9 million, or 12 percent, this year. However, taxpayers still will be paying a little more toward their school district, with a 2.4-mill increase that brings the levy to 62.739 mills. The district just needs more funds to operate than it used to, Wells said.
In Hugoton USD 210, valuation is up about 5 percent, but the district raised its levy slightly, in part to fund the salary increases and the addition of a 403(b) matching program for employees, according to Superintendent Mark Crawford.
And when the valuation goes the opposite way, districts face situations like that of Stanton County USD 452, where the assessed valuation declined 3.6 percent.
As a result of that, plus declining enrollment, the board there had to raise its levy about a mill. Now, budgetary needs are becoming a monthly discussion at board meetings, according to Superintendent Susan Scherling.
"We're looking at overall expenditures and talking about, 'If we had to cut back, where would we cut back?'" she said.
For the Hugoton district, that budget discussion has covered methods for being more "frugal" to avoid a higher tax increases, Crawford said. The district has cut back on teacher travel and streamlined athletic travel, with steps like sending more than one team on one bus, he said.
In Leoti, leaders also are trying to travel smarter, selecting more gas-efficient vehicles and sending a single bus to an out-of-town activity, instead of an early bus and a late bus, Hardy said.
Some staffing changes have been budget-driven, too. He said that when a math teacher retired last year, the district only hired a part-time replacement, and the rest of the math department taking on the rest of the classes.
Hardy said he would rather use the word "efficient" than "tight" when talking about his district's budgeting process. "Tight" makes it sound like "we're taking the fun out of school," which leaders are trying to avoid, he said.
Found 0 comment(s)!
Twitter Updates
