By Broadus Schools Superintendent Jim Hansen
At our August trustee meeting we discussed our increase in state guaranteed tax base dollars which contributed to our decrease in local taxes. The revenue responsible for our tax decrease was allocated from the 95 mills that is assessed to all state taxpayers. Many counties saw their taxable evaluations increase dramatically this year, and are choosing not to assess all of the 95 mills.
With the higher taxable evaluations these counties are maintaining the State would receive approximately $100,000,000 in excess revenue. At least one county has been sued and another organization has filed a Writ of Mandate with the Montana Supreme Court asking that the Court issue a Writ of Mandate requiring that all Montana counties levy the 95 mills. Coincidently, the Mandate was filed by the attorney who provided our school board training in September. What is the 95-mill tax?
Montana School Finance attempts to equalize school funding based on school districts taxable valuations. Therefore, a portion of your “Total School Tax” goes to the State and is redistributed. All Montana taxpayers are assessed 33 Elementary Common mills, 22 High School Common mills, and 40 State equalization mills. The 33 elementary and 22 high school mills go to the State and are redistributed to schools in the form of Direct State Aid. This accounts for approximately 34% of K-12 State school funding. The other 40 State equalization mills goes to the State and is redistributed to school districts with lower taxable evaluations as guaranteed tax base funding. Our taxable evaluation decreased this year and we received a larger reimbursement from the 40 State equalization mills.
Do Powder River county school taxpayers get their “fair share” of those 95 mills? The longer I am in education the more I dislike the word “fair” as maybe we need to learn most things are not. However, the short answer is yes, I believe Powder River County residents are receiving an appropriate amount in return.
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