Hunter
03/04/24
Iowa school districts are facing a March 15th date to publish the first draft of their budgets for the next school year without an agreed-upon figure from state legislators.
Lawmakers imposed a deadline on themselves to pass the education budget that is 30 days after the governor released her proposed version of the overall state budget so that school districts would have time to formulate their own budgets. That deadline was February 9th. Since then, the House has passed a version of the education bill that puts the spending increase at 3 percent, a half-percent over the governor’s proposal. However, the Iowa Senate has yet to agree on a number.
State Democrats asked for a 6 percent increase, which consists of the 3 percent the House agreed on plus the 3 percent that was agreed to last year but never funded.
Budgets are now required to be filed with the district’s county auditor by March 15 and set the maximum levy rate property owners would pay for schools.
Adam Kurth is chief finance officer for the Iowa City Community School District. He told the Gazette that without a solid figure to work with, the district could publish initial property tax levy higher than what they would end up needing, In addition, he said districts could be considering reducing staff to meet their budgets, but they won’t know what they have to work with until state legislators approve the education budget.
