Trego's Mountain Ear

Last week, we looked at a financial comparison between Trego, Fortine, and Olney-Bissell Elementary Districts, and noted the following differences in Levy amounts:

• Fortine: 73.5
• Olney-Bissell: 81.41
• Trego: 48.64

With Trego substantially lower than the other two, the obvious question is: Why?

Our first point is to compare the levied funds for all three schools- again, using the 24/25 budgets, since we won’t have 25/26 budgets until this fall.

Fund	Trego	Fortine	Olney-Bissell
General	38.28	36.95	39.34
Transportation	0.0	26.13	27.0
Bus Depreciation	8.28	7.53	0.00
Tuition	0.0	0.00	2.63
Technology	0.0	0.0	1.53
Building Reserve	2.08	2.89	10.91

There are a few things to notice here: All three schools levy fairly comparatively in their general funds. Trego and Fortine have comparable bus depreciation funds, but Olney-Bissell isn’t levying in that fund at all. Meanwhile, Trego didn’t levy in the transportation fund? Olney-Bissell levied tuition and technology when neither Trego or Fortine did, and their building reserve levy is considerably higher.

The next obvious question then: Why would a district NOT levy in a fund? There are a few potential reasons: First, it might not be a fund they can levy in without a vote. Two: The board of trustees might decide not to. Which of these funds have permissive levies? Transportation, Bus Depreciation, Tuition, and Building Reserve.

The first question our table brings up, Why didn’t Trego have a transportation levy? I can answer, because as the district clerk that set up the budget for the school board, I was involved in suggesting that course of action to the board of trustees.

Trego’s transportation budget was lowered, compared to the previous year, because it appeared there was a significant amount of it that wasn’t being spent from year to year. This extra “unreserved fund balance reappropriated” went against what would otherwise have been levied, reducing the cost to local taxpayers. The county treasurer initially thought I’d made an error.

The next question, I’ll have to speculate on. The Bus Depreciation Fund is not depreciation, per say, for anyone who uses the word in an actual accounting sense. Think of it as a savings account for the purpose of replacing school buses. There are rules about how much can be levied in this fund in any year, and the board of trustees can levy anywhere between all and none of the amount. In the case of Olney-Bissell, their allowed amount might be zero, or their board might have decided not to raise funds for school bus replacement that year in order to keep taxes lower.

Next two questions: Why did Olney-Bissell levy in tuition and technology funds? Because it could, and because it needed to in the case of the tuition fund. Levies in the tuition fund were, prior to changes in tax law, for only really specific circumstances. As for the technology fund? There’s no permissive levy there: the taxpayers voted for that one.

Final question: Why is the building reserve levy so much higher in Olney-Bissell? From the small, comparative numbers, it looks like Fortine and Trego levy only the precise amount to maximize the amount of money provided by the state for the fund. For example: Trego raised a bit over $5,000 from local taxes, but got about $12,500 from the state as a result. As for Olney-Bissell? They’ve also got voted levies funding their building reserve, in addition to the permissive levy (2.21 mills).

What can we conclude? In terms of levies that the public doesn’t get to vote on, the schools are fairly comparable, with the exception of Trego’s transportation levy. Since we know why that happened- let’s look at the previous budgets (23/24), and see how those compared.

Looking just at transportation:

Fund (23/24)	Trego	Fortine	Olney-Bissell
Transportation	2.19	28.18	22.32

Trego’s transportation levy was still weirdly low. What about 22/23?

Fund (22/23)	Trego	Fortine	Olney-Bissel
Transportation	6.44	37.0	37.84

By this point, it’s become apparent that the major difference in the levies between Trego and Fortine is predominantly caused by differences in the transportation budget. The obvious question: What is causing this difference? Next week- a closer look at elementary transportation budgets.

And, finally, a reminder: This information is public. And more than that, it’s readily available online. You can find all of these budgets and download them readily. Here’s your link. The information is available by district and year. Almost everything I’ve referenced in this article can be found within the first two pages.