Tagged: Budget

Carthage Mayor Jim Nightingale said budget projections for the general fund next fiscal year are lower than he would like.

He said, “That's something that we will have to address and present to the council. I think there's some items we're going to have to reduce the expenditures.”

Nightingale likes to see between $250,000 and $300,000 in the general fund. The projections are closer to $260,000.

He said the overall budget will be $1.2 million.

Nightingale said the city is not planning any large capital projects and the city will have plenty of money in the capital improvements fund. He also said projections for the water and sewer budget and motor fuel tax revenue are on target.

The Burlington School District is going back to the drawing board when it comes to reshaping school boundaries. 

Superintendent Jane Evans says the district’s elementary enrollment is out of balance.  She says, for example, North Hill has too many students while Blackhawk is running well below capacity.

The district estimates that 14% of its elementary school students do not attend their neighborhood school.  In response, it identified a neighborhood where students could change schools to help balance out the enrollment figures.

Evans says that plan ran into opposition so the school board is forming a special committee to review the maps and enrollment figures to develop new boundaries.

Superintendent John Henriksen says the Central Lee School District’s budget for the 2012/2013 school year is quite comparable to the district’s current budget.

The school board certified the roughly $14-million dollar spending plan Monday night. 

Henriksen says the spending plan is just a couple hundred thousand dollars larger than the current budget.  He says the budget’s general fund sits at around $10-million, though he believes the final expenditures will come in at around $9-million.

Henriksen says the spending plan takes into account a loss in new state funding due to declining enrollment.  He says the reduction is partially negated, though, because of the number of students open enrolling to Central Lee.

The Keokuk School Board has signed off on the district’s roughly $32-million spending plan for the upcoming school year.

One of the highlights is the fact that the property tax rate will drop by 73-cents, or nearly 4%.  The district’s share of property tax bills are not expected to fall by 4%, though, because of the residential rollback.

The budget also includes an expansion of Keokuk’s preschool program for 4-year-olds.  The addition of a second classroom will allow an increase in enrollment from 30 to as many as 80 preschoolers starting in the fall.

The West Burlington School District has agreed to sell its former middle school to the city for just $1.

Superintendent Dave Schmitt says this is the best option for the entire community.

“We could have gotten $5,000-$10,000 for the building,” says Schmitt, “but then there could have been that risk that it become dilapidated or an eyesore for our community.”

The city plans to tear down the former school at 211 Ramsey Street so several new homes can be built, one of which would be targeted to low-income families.

Schmitt says the school district would turn over the building by July 1 at the earliest.

He says the wrestling room in the former school must still be relocated, along with records that must be maintained by the district.

The Keokuk School Board must make some serious cuts to next year’s budget.

Superintendent Lora Wolff says the district will actually lose roughly $550,000 in state aid because of its declining enrollment.

She says dwindling revenues and increasing expenditures mean balancing the spending plan for the 2012/2013 school year will require a reduction of $1.3-million.

The district plans to use cash reserves and unspent balances to cover nearly $600,000.

The rest of the shortfall ($700,000) will have to come from budget modifications.

This after the Keokuk School Board reduced the budget by nearly three-point-five million dollars during the previous three school years.

Lee County must wait a little longer to put its proposed budget for next year on display.

The Board of Supervisors was ready to set a public hearing on the roughly $26-million spending for Tuesday, Feb. 21.

That plan changed, though, after the county received an email from the state that said its proposed property tax rate must be changed.

CPC Administrator Ryanne Wood says Lee County brings in tax revenue to help pay for day-to-day services for those with mental health or other developmental disabilities.

She says the state also sends the county money to help pay for the services in an effort to hold down the property tax rate.

Wood says the state informed the county that due to a deficit, the MHDD levy must be increased by about $100,000.