Iowa Valley school board proposes keeping tax levy the same

MARENGO — Iowa Valley’s school board proposed keeping its tax levy the same for the next fiscal year though its loan terms would allow a drop for a single year.

The board proposed keeping the tax rate for the next fiscal year at $15.81. The bonds for the school improvements added about $3 to the $12 levy three years ago.

The board is in a position to drop the tax levy to $13.78 for one year, but the rate would go back to $15.81 the following year, said Iowa Valley Superintendent Curt Rheingans. he suggested the district keep the rate the same and stabilize some other funds.

People forget, said Rheingans, so raising the levy after dropping it for year would be difficult. He recommended that the district put the money not needed for the loan into the management fund, which it may not be able to tax into in the future.

The management fund is just over $100,000 now and “skimping by,” said Rheingans. The one year boost could add $400,000 to the fund, he said.

The one-time boost would give the school district money offer early retirement in the future if it were needed to relieve the general fund or pay for an increase in insurance..

The move would give the board and the new superintendent more options, said Rheingans who is retiring at the end of the year.

School board member Ellen O’Rourke agreed that the district should keep the tax rate the same as last year. “You don’t want to go up and down,” she said.

The amount is not astronomical, said board member Dan Slaymaker, and people won’t remember that the tax break was planned for only one year. They won’t like it when the rate goes back up, and putting a new superintendent in the position of raising taxes his first year would not be good.

Iowa Valley’s tax rate is lower than a lot of districts, said Board President Bobbi Miller.

It’s still in the lower half said Rheingans.

“Which is where we want to be, I think, is right in the middle,” said O’Rourke.

“Our budget is very sound,” said Rheingans, though the district was looking at minus $48,500 in new money when the state Senate proposed an increase in funding of only 1.7%.

The House proposed 2.25%, and a compromise settled the growth at 2%.

The state provides more than $8,000 per student, but when enrollment declines, the district sees less money.

“You can weather declining enrollment for one or two years,” said Rheingans, but not several years in a row.

With number of seniors who will graduate from Iowa Valley School District this spring and the number of children coming into kindergarten in the fall, Iowa Valley will have an increase in enrollment of about 10 students next year, said Rheingans.

Numbers in the lower grades and at the new day care are good, Rheingans said.

The district will have three public hearings about the budget before the decisions are final.