State bestows unexpected increase on school district
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, July 10, 2001
The state of Minnesota will give the Austin Public School District over $1.
Tuesday, July 10, 2001
The state of Minnesota will give the Austin Public School District over $1.2 million more money this year than it did last year.
That will bring the district’s total funding to $27,872,050, an increase of 4.5% over the recently completed school year.
Moreover, the deal ads an unexpected $688,718 to the district’s budget, which was passed last month. The money will be used to help offset unsettled costs, including teacher contracts, which are currently under negotiations, and final health insurance costs, which are yet to be determined.
Much of the current increase, nearly $800,000, comes form a rise in basic funding, but another large portion, over $650,000, comes from an increase in the school district referendum levy.
The referendum will increase to $2,275,000, of which Austin residents will have to pay $968,000. That’s over $400,000 more than last year’s referendum levy, which included the last year of a tax first passed in 1991. Moreover, next year’s school district tax base, as mandated by the legislature, will not include agricultural property or vacation cabins.
This will cut Austin’s referendum levy to $260,000, and will save Austin residents over $750,000.
On the other hand, this sharp drop will slow the district’s funding increases to 2.6% in 2003, which will provide the district with $28,602,482, an increase of $730,433.
Call Sam Garchik at 434-2233 or e-mail him at newsroom@austindailyherald.com.