The Great Bend USD 428 Board of Education officials closed its RNR Hearing and Budget Hearing Friday morning. With no one from the public there to comment or ask questions, both hearings were closed and the board approved a resolution to exceed the Revenue Neutral Rate and to approve the 2024-2025 budget as published earlier in the Great Bend Tribune.
“We were made aware today (Sept. 9) we had not posted our RNR on our website,” Superintendent Khris Thexton said earlier. It was posted that day but a 10-day period was then required.
“The earliest we can do it is the 19th and the latest is the 20th,” he said, noting the deadline for submitting the budget. “This is a good learning moment for us,” he concluded.
The revenue neutral rate (RNR) is the tax rate or mill levy that would raise the same amount of tax money as the previous year. Each mill raised is equal to one dollar per $1,000 of assessed value and the mill levy is calculated by determining how much revenue each tax jurisdiction will need for the upcoming year to fund its budget.
USD 428’s tax rate in 2023-2024 was 42.102 mills and the estimated rate for 2024-2025 is 44.93 mills. Total taxes levied will be $8,005,152, compared to $7,865,949 the year before.
The school board opened the public RNR and budget hearings at the Sept. 9 meeting. Superintendent Khris Thexton said then it had come to his attention that the notice of the hearing was not posted on the district website 10 days prior to the hearing, as required. They were published as a public notice in the Great Bend Tribune, which is also required. For that reason, the board recessed the hearings on Sept. 9, posted the notice online and met at 7:30 a.m. Friday to finish the hearings.
Supplemental budget
The board then called a special meeting to order and approved the budget. The board also voted to approve a resolution to adopt the local option budget – also known as the LOB or the supplemental budget – maximum at 32% of budgeted expenditures in the general budget.
District Account Traci Burns provided this explanation of the LOB:
“Essentially, LOB (Local Option Budget) is 32% of General State Foundation Aid. However, current legislation has General State Foundation Aid funding and LOB funding at different amounts. There are also other additions and subtractions in how students are funded in various groups, leading to the calculation being not so straightforward. However, it is basically 32% of the General State Aid for the district that we are able to collect for our Local Option Budget. We generate some of those dollars locally, then the state adds equalization money from the state to get to the 32%.”
The approved budget levies 20 mills for the general fund (excluding the first $75,000 of value on a home), 16.930 mills for the LOB, and 8.0 mills for capital outlay. There are no taxes for debt service at this time. Adding in special revenue from state and federal funds, the total expenditures for this school year are capped at $77,157,773, including transfers.
