Colby School Board approves 2023-24 budget, mill rate decrease

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Colby school board approved a final budget and a tax levy for the 2023-24 school year at their monthly meeting this Monday. The board has budgeted for an expected $15,396,378 in revenue and $15,389,659 in expenses and will be setting the property tax levy for the district at $3,583,987. This tax levy amount was reached with a mill rate of 6.46, which is down from the rate of 7.04 utilized during the 2022-23 school year.

While the mill rate actually went down for the third year in a row, the overall tax levy is up from the $3,329,877 in 2022-23, a 7.63 percent increase. However, it is still less than the initially anticipated levy of $4,111,258, which would have been a 23.47 percent increase, that was discussed during the board’s September annual budget meeting. It will be the first time since 2020 that the overall tax levy has increased, rather than decreased, though the final number is not much more than the $3,458,657 that was reached in 2020.

Two options were examined by district administration and the board in regards to setting the tax levy for the district. One in which they would overlevy to Fund 39, or referendum approved levy, and another where they would not.

The board ultimately decided to go with the option to overlevy to keep the mill rate stable and to defease, or pay money ahead on some of the referendum debt now to save on potential interest dollars in the future.

“This could save the district some interest costs by the end of the bill if we chose to play it all the way out,” superintendent Dr. Patrick Galligan said of the overlevy option. “It could also enhance our ability to do some other projects with a different referendum project by moving along faster.”

“[This option] would keep us a little more steady in terms of levy numbers and tax monies as well, given what we control,” he added. “The mill rate is the part that we can control. We don’t control valuations of property, which have gone up, and we don’t control some of the ways in which different sections of the district have different percentages to pay, that changes over time depending on a lot of financial situations. But what we can control is the mill rate.”

The option to not overlevy would have dropped the mill rate down to 6.05, a decrease of 16.39 percent, and kept the overall tax levy at $3,358,987 or an increase of 0.87 percent. The entirety of the $225,000 difference between the two plans will be going towards the additional defeasement payment on the referendum debt.

“In my opinion, we should try to keep things steady,” board member Lony Oestreich said. “The 6.46 number makes more sense so there isn’t such a big jump. We don’t know what 2024 or 2025 is going to look like, so this is just a more comfortable, long-term number. The other number, 6.05, yeah, that gets attention at 16 percent, but over time that would affect the district for the worse.”

Other Business

n The board also approved a project to add solar panels to the concession stand. The 5kW array would be placed on the south side of the stand and would largely be used for instructional purposes. The array would be purchased and installed through OneEnergy, who would also front some of the cost of the project. The school is currently looking at a cost of around $2,100, though they hope to speak with Clark Electric to see if they would be interested in sponsoring the project as well. “It’s mostly going to be used for education,” Galligan told the board. “We can use it for our science classes, track the data of the energy being brought in by the device and we can use it for many different means in both the high school and the middle school, and maybe even the elementary.”