Beatrice School District new budget shows lower spending and tax rate

BEATRICE – The President of the Beatrice School Board says the coming year’s district budget represents a three percent overall reduction and a five-percent reduction in tax rate.

Last week, the Beatrice School Board received an update on the budget which will come before the board soon, for approval. This year, increased valuations set by Gage County will increase district revenue…a by-product of the valuation increase.

Under the proposal, the Beatrice Public School district’s general fund tax rate would drop by about 8.4 cents per hundred dollars valuation.  The total tax rate of the district would be at 99.7 cents…compared with the past year’s total rate of $1.045.   In Nebraska, schools are capped at $1.05 per hundred dollars of valuation in their general fund and building fund.

There is no bond fund levy in District 15, which paid off a bond in 2019 that was used to build Beatrice High School.

The building fund of the district would decrease from 13.9 cents this past year, to 12.7 cents this coming year.  The building fund is being used to finance the new prekindergarten through fifth grade school, which opened this school year in east Beatrice.

School districts use what’s called a Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking Fund that is outside the levy limit….in order to make building improvements. In the Beatrice district this coming year, that fund would represent a tax levy of 2.3-cents.

The school district issued a budget statement following the preliminary review, to clarify what it describes as misinformation.