USD 204 lowers mill levy

Archive for Tuesday, August 24, 2010

August 24, 2010

Monday night USD 204 unanimously approved a 2010-2011 budget that includes a decrease to the mill levy of .131 mills.

A mill is $1 in taxes for every $1,000 in assessed valuation.

The mill levy will be set at 65.372 this year instead of last year’s 65.503.

“It wasn’t easy,” business and finance manager Tami Koppang said of lowering the levy.

She said one major factor that allowed the decrease to happen was the fact the district had last school year refinanced a portion of bonds taken out in 2000. This freed up funds that also allowed the district to, as she said, “maximize” the local option budget, which is a supplemental budget to the general fund that carries funds totaling 30 percent of the previous year’s general fund expenditures.

“We didn’t have to ask for as much in the bond fund, (so we could) ask for the maximum in the LOB and still lower the (mill levy),” Koppang said.

• More of this story can be found in the Aug. 26 issue of The Chieftain.