Dr. Jack Parker, superintendent of Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation
File photo
MT. VERNON – Last week at Mt. Vernon’s Board of School Trustees meeting, officials gathered to look at what is an estimated preview of the next school year’s budget.
Greg Elkins, chief financial officer, presented the budget preview to the board and shared that they are constantly getting data and refining information as time for the board to adopt the budget gets closer, which will be at their October meeting.
According to Indiana Gateway, “the creation of a budget for the upcoming fiscal year provides a financial plan for each local government and the total appropriation reflects the amount of money that will be required.”
Elkins stated at their last meeting that the Department of Local Government Finance, DLGF, is who will apply all the administrative rules and statutes to adjust the budget requests. The official budget will not be released from DLGF until late December or early January.
So far, the total amount of request appropriations budgeted for the fiscal year — January through December — is $65,572,822, with $31,500,000 of that being for the education fund.
Dr. Jack Parker, superintendent of Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation, shared that the education fund receives funds from the state that are distributed on a per-pupil basis. Sources of this funding are mostly income, sales and excise taxes paid by all Indiana taxpayers then distributed to public schools per the two-year state budget.
Elkins shared at the meeting that they may have to do some adjustments in the education fund, with this year’s adjustments due to staffing, especially in special education and behavioral needs. Elkins also mentioned that they are taking on curricular materials at cooperation level.
According to Indiana Gateway, property tax rate is the percentage used to determine how much a property taxpayer will pay per $100 of certified net assessed value. Indiana Department of Education mentioned in their digest of public school finance for 2021 to 2023 that “the tax is charged against real property (land and improvements), utilities, and personal property.”
For the debt service rate, which is the tax to help decrease the corporation’s debt obligations or those annual payments for large capital expenses that have been financed over a period of time, was estimated for $1.09, whereas the year before the rate was at $1.179 — reducing it by approximately 9 cents.
Elkins had mentioned that it is a “pretty significant” decrease and is taking a big swipe at the rate, even if that rate ends up changing slightly.
One item that Elkins pointed out during the meeting was the operations fund decreases, which Elkins shared that it is “not necessarily one to celebrate.” Elkins says as they were trying to maximize the operations levy, which is the tax dollars per fund, there is a cap rate, the maximum amount to collect.
The amount requested for operations max levy is estimated at 4% over last year with the cap rate; however, Elkins mentioned that they were due to capture 9% because of growth.
Overall, the total school tax is expected to be approximately 15 cents lower than last year, going from $1.703 in 2023 to the estimated $1.558 for 2024.
Dr. Parker wanted to point out that they are constantly working on lowering the tax rate with the growth of the assessed valuation and the reassessment of properties, and that the board is very conscious of the tax rate.
“Our tax rate is going to go down considerably, and that is something we intend to continue to do for the next several years,” Dr. Parker said.
The public hearing for the requested budget will be held at the Sept. 18 meeting, with the board voting on the adoption of the budget at the Oct. 16 meeting. Meetings are held at the Mt. Vernon Administrative Service Center in Fortville.
