Daily News 10/30/2015

A4 The Daily News, Friday, October 30, 2015

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LOCAL

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Tax cuts ahead in some area school districts

HUHS, Richfield districts give final OK to 2015-16 budgets
By JOE VANDELAARSCHOT
Daily News
There should be more green
left in taxpayers pockets in the
Hartford Union and Richfield
Joint 1 school districts after
action taken this week. The
boards of education in both districts gave final approval to their
2015-16 budgets and each include
tax cuts. A cut was anticipated in
Richfield, but not in Hartford.
The mill rate in the Hartford
Union High School district will be
about $3.87 per thousand a drop
of about 5 cents per thousand
from last year. The owner of a
$150,000 home in the district
should see a decrease the portion
of their tax bill from HUHS of
about $7.50. The tax levy will be
about $12.1 million for 2015-16.
Taxpayers in the Richfield Joint 1
District will see an even larger
mill rate cut.
For the 2015-16 budget it will
be down about 4 percent from last
year, said Richfield District
Administrator Tara Villalobos. It

will be about $5.60 per thousand

compared to about $5.85 per thousand in 2014-15 a drop of about
25 cents per thousand.
That means the owner of a
$150,000 home in the Richfield
school district should see a drop
of about $37.50 in that portion of
their tax bill.
Villalobos said the districts
tax levy will remain frozen at
about $3.35 million. Student
enrollment for this school year
(442 full time equivalent students)
is down about 20 students from
last year.
Were pleased with how our
budget
was
put
together,
Villalobos said.
When drafting their 2015-16
budget, Hartford officials said
they took a conservative approach.
HUHS Director of Business
Services Mike Williamson said
the district received disappointing news from the state. He said
the districts property value
increased, but not as much as district officials had projected.
Before final information was

UW Colleges
positions announced

We felt we could
give the taxpayers a
break and work with
the existing
resources to provide
our students with a
quality education.
Joshua Schoemann
HUHS Board Treasurer
provided by the state, the Hartford
Union board had approved a budget with an expected increase in
the mill rate to about $4 per thousand from $3.92 in 2014-15. The district mill rate was $3.99 per thousand for 2013-14.
The major reason for that mill
rate decrease is we will receive
more money in state aid than had
been projected in July about
$340,000 more, Williamson said.
Were still receiving less in state

aid than we did in 2014-15, but its

less of a cut than we expected.
Voters at the Sept. 19 HUHS
annual meeting approved setting
the districts general fund tax levy
for the new year at nearly $9.4 million and at about $1.13 million for
the debt service fund. Voters also
agreed to set aside about $1.86 million in the districts Fund 41 capital improvement account.
HUHS Board member and
Treasurer Joshua Schoemann
said the board could have raised
taxes for the new school year, but
chose not to.
We discussed that, but we
chose not to, Schoemann said.
We didnt think it was the best
time to do that. We felt we could
give the taxpayers a break and
work with the existing resources
to provide our students with a
quality education.
Schoemann and Williamson
both called the tax cut for their
district significant. Williamson
said the Hartford Union board has
taken several actions that have
allowed needed projects and

building renovations to take place

without a tax increase, including:
The district completed a
$8.1 million renovation project
without a referendum because all
debt payments were made within
the revenue limit.
The district conducted
$1.4 million in energy efficiency
projects in the last two years.
The district used the capital
expansion fund to offset some
expenditures and increase the districts state aid payment to nearly
$5.4 million. This reduced the
expected tax levy approved at the
annual meeting, almost $12.3 million, by nearly $338,000.
Health insurance premiums
decreased by 2 percent.
Williamson said student numbers at HUHS declined slightly
from 1,519 in 2014-15 to 1,512 in
2015-16. Both boards took final
action on their district budgets
earlier this week.
Reach reporter
Joe VanDeLaarschot at
jvan@conleynet.com.

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