By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board approved a notice of its intent to exceed the revenue-neutral rate for its FY27 budget at its meeting Monday night.
Last fiscal year, the school district levied $22,555,824 in taxes with a mill rate of 53.618.
This year, the district is proposing to levy $23,201,273 in taxes at a mill rate of 54.442 mills, including the general fund. That is a 2.86% increase.
The district’s valuation increased by about 1.4% this year.
That means the 20-mill school levy that goes to the state of Kansas and is redistributed to schools will increase, said Chris Hipp, assistant superintendent for business.
To be revenue neutral, a taxing entity can’t collect more in taxes than it did the previous year.
The local school district has no control over the 20-mill state levy.
Hipp said 70% of the district’s budget is spent on staff wages and benefits.
Those amounts are predetermined by negotiations, and the decision to give Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) raises.
The district also levies a local option budget (LOB), 8 mills for capital improvements and a levy for bond and interest.
The local option budget is recommended at 15.9 mills this year, based on the state average.
The Hays district is considered a “rich” district. That means it receives less back from the state under the 20 mill levy than other counties with lower valuations, Hipp said.
“That falls on the local property taxes in order to make that up,” Hipp said. “In order to fully fund your LOB, we will have to exceed the revenue-neutral [rate].”
The district has a permanent resolution that establishes the capital improvement mill levy at 8 mills.
The district receives no state aid for its capital outlay fund, Hipp said.
Based on a $200,000 home and an average increase in the county valuation, a resident would pay about $90, or 8.25%, more per year in school taxes on that home.
The school mill levy is about the middle of comparable school districts and slightly higher than the state average for total mills.
Board member Derek Yarmer expressed his frustration with what he described as high per-capita taxes.
Board Vice President Ruth Ruder said the state sets the standard but blames local school boards for the tax levels.
Yarmer said, “I would be a proponent of reducing the tax burden on our residents.”
“We can’t go tax neutral on the 20 mills, but we can go tax neutral on others.”
He added, “We can control our spending and what we’re doing. We have been spending rather extravagantly for a while. It might be time to cut things back.”
Hipp said the board establishes the budget year-round through the projects it approves.
“Don’t look at that in isolation,” he said. “It has to be a conversation at every meeting and with every decision.”
Ruder said the district needs the funds to properly maintain its new buildings.
“We need to make sure we protect our assets that we have invested so highly in,” she said.
She added, “I get it, I am a taxpayer, like you and you and you.”
However, she said, she is in favor of maintaining the 8 mills for capital outlay.
Board member Allen Park said he was concerned about the amount being raised by the capital outlay fund.
“I think somewhere we need to find a way to give relief to our taxpayers,” he said. “I think capital outlay is something we need to look at.”
Park said the district is not locked into a budget until it approves the final budget in September.
Board President Curt Vajnar said, “What’s locking us in are the teacher raises that we’ve already approved. We’ve spent this much money, and we’re going to have to generate this much money.”
A notice will be sent to the Ellis County Clerk, along with notices from all other taxing entities in the county. The clerk compiles the revenue-neutral rate notices and mails them to property taxpayers.
The school board will have a public revenue-neutral rate hearing at its Aug. 17 meeting.
The revenue-neutral rate establishes the maximum the district can spend, but it is not the final step in the budgeting process, Hipp said.
The district’s public budget hearing will be in September.