School district determining process to take in new mill levy money after election

Tax increase will be on the next bill

With the passage of the Gunnison school district mill levy override on November 4 comes a slew of critical decisions. Appointing a review committee in preparation for next month’s mill certification is the first step in ensuring a thorough process. The mill levy will be certified in December and you will see that additional tax on your 2014 bill.

At a meeting on Monday, November 17, superintendent Doug Tredway introduced a proposed timeline to school board members, detailing important dates leading up to December 15, when a newly elected oversight committee will make a recommendation to the board on the allocation of funds from the mill levy for the current school year.
“The mill levy committee is going to look at the ballot language, the exhibits, and the budget put forth through our process in the district, and they are going to make their recommendation based on their belief that the district has created a budget for Fund 26 that aligns with the ballot language,” Tredway explained. Fund 26 is a Fee-in-Lieu Fund, which is used to record revenues from the new residential mill levy override.
In upcoming years the timeline will change slightly. Each May the mill levy review committee will be responsible for recommending to the school board the amount of money that should be collected from Fund 26 for the following fiscal year. The committee will also allocate expenditures to ensure that the allotted funds were distributed appropriately and transparently.
“They will meet quarterly to ensure they are following the process,” Tredway said. “They will write their reports to the board in May to convey how the budget was spent last year and how they see it going forward the next year.”
Then in December, the board will officially act on those recommendations when they certify the mill levy.
Tredway also noted that the public will have access to expenditure reports through the district’s website.
“Our budget is online. We have a financial transparency part of our website so that people can go and look at that,” Tredway explained. “We will also have open meetings where we discuss the budget.”
Each year the committee will have the option of extracting up to $2.5 million in property taxes to be placed in Fund 26. If the state decides to eliminate the negative factor and thereby increase the educational budget, the district may not need to use the entirety of the allotted mill levy funds.
“Right now the state’s not funding education to an appropriate level, so we are having to count on funding from the local level,” Tredway explained. “If the state ponies up, we can leave some of the funds in the pockets of the taxpayers.”
Three non-employee community members will make up the review committee: one representative from the Gunnison attendance area; another from the Crested Butte attendance area; and a final member to represent the community at-large.
“I’ve had three or four people express interest,” Tredway said. “We have some very good, interested parties valley-wide.”
The board plans to review resumes and appoint a committee during the Colorado Association of School Boards’ conference in early
December.