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C-I referendum consensus found
Staff Writer CROSBY - While the Crosby-Ironton School Board Monday did not vote on the amount of a property tax increase they'll ask taxpayers for Nov. 4, board members did reach a consensus on the amount that the proposed operating levy referendum will be.
After mulling over figures that ranged from tax increases of $425 to $700 per pupil, board members at their special board meeting decided they would support a $595 per pupil increase for operating expenses for the first levy question and an additional $100 per pupil to pay for maintenance costs as the second question, which would only pass if the first question also was approved.
Last fall, the district's operating levy referendum questions, which failed to pass, asked for $495 per pupil for operating expenses and $100 per pupil for maintenance costs.
This year, the district cut $750,000 from its budget, adding back athletics and several fine arts offerings after community members raised enough funds to do so. The first question, asking for $595 per pupil if approved, would generate about $900,000 a year in revenue while the $100 per pupil question would generate about an additional $158,000 a year for maintenance costs.
A $595 per pupil operating levy would cost a home valued at $100,000 about $87 a year. The additional $100 per pupil operating levy would cost that same home an additional $15 a year, said C-I business director Bill Tollefson.
Tollefson planned to have more detailed figures at the regular board meeting on Monday, where board members are expected to approve those numbers.
The board spent hours Monday going over various financial scenarios and projections. The basic financial projection model, which added back textbooks and supplies and some of the programs that would have been cut this year if the community hadn't raised the needed funds, showed the district will be back in Statutory Operating Debt, or SOD, in 2009-2010 with a negative unreserved fund balance of $1.144 million, or -11.05 percent.
Even if the district is able authorize a levy up to $400,000 a year for its Other Post Employment Benefits, or OPEB, the district is still projected to go into SOD in 2009-2010 with a negative fund balance of $382,515, or -3.98 percent.
These figures also assume no budget cuts or increases from the state Legislature. Board members spent considerable time plugging in various figures on a financial spreadsheet projected onto the wall, watching as the numbers changed.
"If we're going to do it, let's do it right," said board member Mike Domin. "If we're going for $400, it's not enough. In five years we'd be $1 million in the hole."
The district currently has a voter-approved operating levy for $405 per pupil which expires at the end of the 2013-14 school year.
JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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