School District Will Hike Taxes
Business Manager Randy Goodwin explains the new budget Monday night.
Budget Will Be Approved In July
WATER VALLEY – The School District’s $10 million budget for the next school year was put before citizens at a public hearing Monday night.
And, even though it will cost taxpayers more, no members of the public were there to hear it.
District Business Manager Randy Goodwin opened the hearing by breaking down the budget figures for school board members. He said that 16.95 percent of the revenue, $1,780,805, would come from local sources; 58.46 percent, $6,140,728, from the state; and 24.59 percent, $2,583,397, from the federal government.
Goodwin said that expenditures include salaries and benefits that add up to $7,510,501, which is 76.18 percent. Other expenses include supplies, utilities, etc., $1.978,319 or 20.07 percent and debt service, $369,551 or 3.75 percent.
That leaves a positive balance of roughly $640,000-plus that will go toward the District’s fund balance.
“Our revenue went down, but so did our expenditures,” Goodwin said.
Goodwin continued by giving examples of some of the expenditures. He said that the District would be spending $20 per student on various supplies, textbooks, and testing.
He added that he had budgeted $100,000 for diesel fuel for the bus fleet, although he estimated that the actual cost would be about $60,000. “With what’s going on and the uncertainty of fuel prices, I did not feel comfortable not budgeting $100,000 for diesel.”
The hearing had been publicized in the Herald over a three-week period beginning May 27 and ending June 10. District officials plan to raise the ad valorem tax millage rate from 37.05 mills to 43 mills, according to the paid advertisement. That’s an increase of 5.95 mills or about 16 percent.
The increase in ad valorem tax revenue means that tax payers within the district will pay more on their homes, automobile tags, utilities, business fixtures and equipment and rental real property, the ad states.
The budget will be approved in early July at a separate meeting held at the same time as the first regular meeting for that month. The meeting would have normally been held on July 5, but may be moved to July 6 or July 12 because of the national holiday.
The next regular board meeting will be held this Friday at noon to pay claims.
