By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board approved its budget and agreed to exceed the revenue-neutral rate after public hearings on Tuesday.
The school district will levy a total of 54.442 mills for the 2026-27 school year.
The mill levy increased by .824 mills.
Twenty mills of this is the statewide school mill levy, which supports districts’ general funds statewide.
The district levies 8 mills for its capital outlay fund, 15.29 for its supplemental general fund or local option budget and 11.152 mills for bond and interest.
No one from the public spoke at either the public hearings for the revenue-neutral rate or the budget.
Two school board members voted against the motion to exceed the revenue-neutral rate and the budget.
Board member Derek Yarmer said he was voting no on the budget.
“I think we are overtaxing. I understand we have to go above for the general fund, but we do have the ability to not exceed revenue-neutral for the LOB and capital outlay,” Yarmer said.
Allen Park, board member also said he thought the district should lower taxes.
“I also have some concerns about grabbing as much money as we can when we don't need to. We've had so many awesome improvements and a lot of things that aren't needing the maintenance that we used to have, but yet our capital outlay is just getting bigger and bigger,” he said.
Chris Hipp, assistant superintendent for business, said keeping the capital outlay mill levy at 8 mills increased the funds raised by about $41,000.
Hipp said the capital outlay budget had carryover, but the district needed to maintain it to pay for projects underway and other needs during the budget year.
The district does not receive its tax distribution until January, he said.
SEE RELATED STORY: Hays USD 489 board reviews budget; declining enrollment concern