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Drop in assessed value could hit school budgets hard |
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Friday, November 07 2008 |
By Chris Meyers
Staff Writer
As Whitley County Consolidated Schools Business Manager Tony Zickgraf prepares the district’s 2009 budget, he faces a huge unknown — the assessed value for WCCS.
“Here it is the first week of November and we still don’t have the assessed value,” he said.
The district is passing its budget later than all other districts in Whitley County because Zickgraf opted to take the state up on its offer to delay approval until Dec. 1.
Zickgraf did so assuming that he would know the assessed value of WCCS by mid-November and therefore have a more solid projection for how much the district’s budget should be.
“It’s not a firm budget,” he said of the proposed 2009 budget due to the lack of a concrete assessed value.
Another large variable in play is the possible decrease in the district’s assessed value of up to 20 percent as a result of changes to the homestead tax credit in the state.
“I thought after about 13 years I had a good handle on it, and then they changed the rules and laws,” Zickgraf said.
Homeowners now get a larger deduction, which is good for them because it lowers their taxes, but it also lowers the assessed value of properties, which means fewer tax dollars to fund schools.
“That means the capital projects fund will take a hit,” Zickgraf said Thursday night, adding that the capital projects fund is “totally dependent” on assessed value.
As a result of all these unknowns working together, the district is bracing for the effects of the changes.
One thing helping the district is the state taking over school districts’ general, special education and preschool funds.
That shift decreases local districts’ tax levies which means local school districts won’t have to take out loans to cover the tax payments they should receive from the state.
Zickgraf said it’s been three or four years since WCCS received on-time tax draws for its various funds.
Smith-Green Community Schools has also had to take out tax anticipation warrant loans to ensure the district has enough money to operate until it gets the checks from the state.
Adam Skiles, business and technology director at Smith-Green said at the board’s Monday meeting that the district shouldn’t have to take out any more tax anticipation loans if all goes as planned at the state level. The same holds true for WCCS.
“We should now get 12 equal monthly checks,” Zickgraf said, adding that hopefully there will be no more delayed payments to the district.
If all goes as planned, the board of school trustees will approve the budget at its Nov. 18 meeting and have a budget hearing with the Indiana Department of Local Government and Finance once assessed values are known.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, November 11 2008 )
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