Neligh-Oakdale Approves Increase In Budget, Tax Request

Neligh-Oakdale increased its budget for 2015-16, resulting in on increase of both the overall budget and in property taxes for district stakeholders. 

Interim Superintendent Bill Kuester said the levy will decrease from .98 to .94, but thanks to an increase in property valuations, tax payers will still pay more to the school. That’s an increase of $5,026,865 in property taxes last year to $5,380,623 in taxes this year, or 7 percent increase in property taxes.

The district’s published budget disbursements and transfers for 2015-16 is $9,177,110. In 2014-15 it was $8,250,531.

The district has three funds that require property taxes - general, building and bond. The bond fund is the Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking Fund (QCPUF) that not only repays the loan for the new HVAC system in the 1930s building but can also be used for life safety and energy efficiency projects.

The approved budget, which was passed unanimously during Monday’s regular board meeting, increased the general fund request by $378,442 and the building fund by $35,354. The QCPUF fund was decreased by $60,039.

Kuester originally proposed a higher increase during the August budget workshop. A “straw poll” from the five board members attending agreed to publish the budget as they had discussed, but Kuester said Monday that budget and finance committee members Chris Ford and Kenny Reinke worked to make cuts in the budget to drop the increase to just 7 percent.