From the Louisville Courier-Journal:
Lanesville Community Schools will become the first in the area to ask its voters to approve a property tax increase to support its general fund.
Its school board unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday to pursue a tax levy referendum on the May 6 primary election ballot that, if voters back it, would allow up to a 17-cent increase on Franklin Township property tax bills.
School administrators say the 662-student system, one of the state’s smallest, has benefitted from an influx of 180 transfer students and the per-pupil state funding that follows them to Harrison County. But it’s not a stable source of revenue when the district is dealing with a $240,000 shortfall this year — and more shortfalls ahead.
“We’re trying to be very pro-active,” Superintendent Steve Morris said. “We’ve got a good school system. We want to try to maintain it.”
Indiana law allows school corporations to place a public question on a ballot if the school board determines the district cannot carry out its public educational duty unless it imposes a referendum tax levy.
Lanesville is now in the process of sending its resolution and the proposed ballot question to the state’s Department of Local Government Finance for review. According to the DLGF’s website, Hoosiers have rejected 15 referenda and passed 13 since 2010. In the last two years, the track record has been more favorable with seven approved compared with three rejected by voters.
In Lanesville, the system’s general fund expenses are $4,084,252, while estimates revenues are about $3,844,820. While they can absorb the shortfall this year, Morris said, they can’t keep running behind. Money in a rainy day fund has gradually dwindled because of increases in health insurance premiums.
Administrators project that the 17-cent increase valuation would generate about $260,000 a year. The additional levy would take effect in 2015 and continue for seven years. Tax bills for a property owner whose home and acreage is assessed at $100,000 would increase about $50, Morris said.
Depending on each year’s budget and cash flow, Lanesville may use only 10 cents of the 17-cent levy available. And because the district expects to retire school construction bonds in five years, they could reduce taxes by 21 cents per $100 of valuation, school board president Donnie Hussung said.
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http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2014301250027&nclick_check=1
