Rib Lake school tax rate continues to tumble

Tax rates for property owners in the Rib Lake school district will continue to drop, but what impact this has on the amount people will actually end up paying in school taxes remains to be seen.

About a dozen people attended Monday night’s annual meeting of the Rib Lake School District to hear an overview of district operations and ask questions about the proposed 2022-2023 budget.

School administrator Travis Grubbs presented an overview of the budget noting the district is proposing $6,999,095 in Fund 10 portion of the budget. This is the district’s main operational account and covers student instruction. It reflects a $181,228 increase over last year’s budget however there is a $479,644 decrease in the local tax levy amount going to this budget based on the application of federal COVID-related grant funds. Grubbs noted that they are limited in what they can use these funds for and have focused on things that address learning shortfalls as well as investment in long-term technology upgrades in the district such as connecting the buildings with fiber optic cables and upgrades to the school buildings’ HVAC systems.

In the 2021-2023 biennial budget, the state legislature included no increases for per pupil aid and instead instructed school districts to apply their federal COVID grant dollars to fill in the gaps. The challenge, Grubbs said is the grant money will run out. “We need to hope for a good biennial budget,” Grubbs said of the need for the state to address that shortfall in the coming 2023-2025 state budget.

On the local level, the district’s tax rates will be greatly impacted by a large jump in equalized value in the district. The district is projected to have a total equalized value of $312 million. He projected that with the valuation numbers released this week, the district could see the tax rate drop to $6.85 per $1,000 of equalized value.

By comparison, last year’s rate was $7.72 per $1,000 of value and in the 20172018 school year was at $9.76 per $1,000 of value. He explained that this reflects a combination of new growth as well as inflationary increase in property values. He said while new growth would help reduce the actual amount paid by homeowners, inflationary increases in home values would result in a lower rate but payments being about the same.

“I don’t know how sustainable that is long term,” Grubbs said, noting that at some point things are going to have to change for all school districts in the state. He noted that depending on the amount of state aids that will be announced on October 15, the local tax rate could drop even further.

Other pieces of the overall district budget include the debt service levy and the district’s community service fund levy (Fund 80). The district is proposing to keep the Fund 80 levy at $22,500 for the year this helps fund a variety of community benefits including after school programs, community education and maintenance/ upgrade to school trails and parking areas.

In addition to the instructional budget, Grubbs also reviewed the long-term debt payments. He proposed the district plan to pay off half of the remaining debt balance this year and half the following year. He said this will allow the district to fully pay it off by 2025 and in the process save taxpayers about $23,000 in interest payments.

Grubbs also noted the district is not able to tap into the longterm improvement fund (Fund 49) that was set up 5 years ago. The district is able to put money into the account and have it count for expended dollars in that year’s state funding formula unlike fund balance which is only counted as being spent when it is pulled out of fund balance and used. Grubbs explained that the improvement fund will allow the district to cover major expenses without having to pull it from operational funds.

Grubbs also highlighted the food service budget. This is a self-supporting area of the budget with income generated from the school lunch fees. Grubbs said the balance in that account is currently at $158,465, which he described as being too high and said they are looking at ways to upgrade kitchen equipment as well as working to reduce the balance by investing in better-quality and more local food options. He said he is hoping putting better quality food and produce in front of students will see continued family support for the meal program and help make it sustainable into the future.

Electors at the meeting voted to accept the budget as presented along with the special levies for debt service, community service and the school lunch levy. The annual meeting action sends these budgets to the school board for final action and to formally set the tax rate after all state aids are factored in.

In other action, electors approved routine annual meeting business of approving providing textbooks, student accident insurance, borrowing authority, authority for the school board to take legal actions, provide transportation and kept the board meeting pay the same as in past years.