News

State to cut funding in county

By Scott Wagar

05/06/2014

Even though North Dakota is considered to be one of the wealthiest states in our country, and its state’s coffer is worth millions (if not billions) of dollars, two entities in Bottineau are presently seeing cuts in state funding.

The Bottineau School District and the Bottineau County Public Library have received notice from the state that they will be receiving financial cuts that when combined is over $100,000 in state funding.

BOTTINEAU SCHOOL DISTRICT

The school district will be hit the hardest and could see cuts as close as $200,000.

“In looking at the state funding for the 2014-15 school year, the district will be receiving less money from the state.  We have looked at the numbers DPI (Department of Public Instruction) is projecting, as well as entering our current numbers,” said Jason Kersten, superintendent of the Bottineau School District.

“Although per pupil is increasing in 2014-15, our district will receive approximately $95,000 to $180,000 less money compared to the 2013-14 school year.

These are approximations at this time and will not be known until the end of the fiscal year.”

How the state decides the monetary payment for each school district is conducted through an intricate formula, which primarily deals with the Average Daily Membership (ADM) and the Weighted Student Unit (WSU) of a district, which is to grant evenhanded payments to districts based on school size, local property tax the district receives, oil and gas revenue among other entities.  

For the Bottineau School District, the deduction in its state payment comes from deductibles within the formula.

“The main reason for less funding is the deducts districts can have within the formula and the fact many of the figures in the formula are not the numbers for the 2014-15 school year but actual numbers from the previous year (2013-14),” Kersten said.

“The deducts counting against us in the formula come from our revenue at the local level, which is basically some of our county dollars. The big one is our oil and gas dollars. Under the current formula, 75 percent of our oil and gas dollars are subtracted from our state payment. The state is estimating this deduction will be approximately $911,000 which will be subtracted from our state dollars.”

Kersten also stated that less funding will have a negative affect on the school and the future for improved funding for the district will depend on the state’s legislators.

“Short term affects obviously are not good. Anytime a district receives less money from the year before it puts a strain on the budget,” Kersten said. “Long term depends on what may possibly happen to the funding formula in the next legislative session. Within the school funding formula, there are formula adjustments taken from what the district receives from the state. How the adjustments will be handled in future legislative sessions will affect what the district will receive in the future.”

OTHER COUNTY DISTRICTS

When it comes to the Newburg and Westhope school districts, the state formula will grant Newburg more state funding, while Westhope will receive less funding, but more money per student when compared to the 2013-14 school year.

PUBLIC LIBRARY

When it comes to the county’s public library, courthouse documents show the library will receive no state funding this year.

Normally, the library receives $12,000 to $18,000 annually in State Financial Aid to Public Libraries, but due to the North Dakota Century Code 54-24.2 the county library’s application for state financial aid was turned down.

According to the century code, in order to receive state library aid, the dollars levied for a library cannot be less than the average dollars levied in the past three years.

In a document sent by the state, it stated that since there was a reduction in the mill levy in Bottineau County for its 2014 budget, it led to a reduction in dollars the mill levy generated, making the county’s library not eligible to receive funding for 2014 due to North Dakota Century Code 54-24.2.

Bottineau County Public Library is not the only public library in the state of North Dakota not to receive state funding for 2014. In fact, numerous libraries lost funding for this year, which could carry on to 2015 and years to follow.

At the present moment, it is uncertain how Century Code 54-24.2 will affect Bottineau County Public Library in 2015 because it is uncertain where the mill levy will be in the county’s budget for 2015.