Spirit Lake School Board Adopts Budget That Reflects A Decline In The Tax Rate
Spirit Lake School Board Adopts Budget That Reflects A Decline In The Tax Rate
April 06, 2022Steve Schwaller
(Spirit Lake)– The Spirit Lake School Board Tuesday evening adopted a budget for the upcoming fiscal year that reflects a decline in the tax rate. Jane Loveall, Director of Business and Finance for the Spirit Lake Community School District says the rate will be dropping from 8.18, where it’s been the past five years, to 8.07 percent. Loveall says there’s one factor in particular that allowed the decrease to happen…
“Property valuations have been increasing and we are a district that can greatly benefit from that. Dr. Smith is always very fiscally responsible and he has tasked us with being the same, so. Myself and Ashley Weber, we’re new, this is our third year, and we’re just taking a real good look at all of our expenses and all of our funds and trying to make cuts where possible and trying to just take a look at what’s been done in the past and also just try to be good to our teachers, too, to make Spirit Lake a good place to work.”
She says they did have to get creative in the process, given inflationary pressures that are out there…
“Energy costs, there’s a way we can take those out of a different fund. We’ve been looking at our health insurance and we’ve gone to a partially self-funded plan which has saved the district some money, so definitely looking at different costs and kind of being creative in ways that we can manage those costs.”
The budget was adopted following a public hearing Tuesday evening that drew no opposition.
