Cottonwood School District parents and patrons, I wanted to follow up with the letter that I wrote regarding the supplemental levy a couple weeks ago. The Cottonwood School District trustees (Aaron Hinkelman, Tara Klapprich, Keith Holcomb, Casey Forsmann, and Shawn Kaschmitter), Carly Behler (Business Manager) and I held a budget workshop and levy meeting on Thursday, March 12th at 5:30 p.m. The supplemental levy paperwork needed to be submitted to the courthouse by Friday, March 13th. We discussed various scenarios with the budget and in the end, the board approved a $275,000 levy for the May 19th election day. I want to explain a few things that most people didn’t know about the levy. For the past three years, and hopefully continuing into the future, the state has provided School District Facility Funds also known as “Tax Relief Funds" to school districts across the state. These funds must be used in a specific order. First, they are used to help pay off any bonds a district has (School District 242 does not have bonds). If there are no bonds, the tax relief funds are used to reduce supplemental levies. If there are still funds remaining after the levy is paid off, the money goes into an account that the district can use for maintenance and facility needs. This is similar to the Modernization Fund but with fewer restrictions. In 2023, Cottonwood School District received $164,941 in tax relief. That amount reduced the district’s levy from $200,000 down to $35,059, lowering the amount taxpayers had to cover. In 2024, the district received $231,917 in tax relief, paying off the $175,000 levy that year In 2025, the district received $384,886 in tax relief funds once again paying off the $175,000 levy for that year. In the past 2 years, the district levies were completely paid off, costing the taxpayers no taxes. Looking back at the historical levies, they used to be higher. In 2012, the levy amount was $387,000, which equaled roughly $294 per $100,000 of assessed property value. In 2017, the levy was $350,000 which equated to $228 per $100,000 of assessed property value. This year, the $275,000 levy amount equals about $87 per $100,000 of assessed property value prior to any state funding. While we don’t know the exact amount the district will receive from the state this year, the district is estimating around $250,000 in tax relief funds. If this happens, the amount that local taxpayers would have to pay for the levy would be significantly lower. Like I stated in my previous letter, we run a supplemental levy to assist with maintenance and operation of the district. If we are fortunate enough to receive the tax relief funds, we will pay the levy down, taking the tax burden off our patrons. We wanted to get this information out to our patrons and parents, as there were several people unaware of this. Keep this in the back of your mind as you head to the polls on May 19th. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me via phone or stop by my office. Respectfully Jon Rehder Superintendent Cottonwood School District #242 rehderj@sd242.org 208-962-3971 Go Pirates! |
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