FORT SMITH -- The only thing remarkable about the Fort Smith School District's 2015-2016 budget is how unremarkable it is, Superintendent Benny Gooden said.
Gooden presented the proposed budget to the School Board, which met as a committee of the whole on Thursday. The committee gave its preliminary approval at the meeting and will take a final vote on the budget at its regular meeting Monday.
Gooden said federal, state and local funding levels were essentially flat. He told the board members that the growth in Sebastian County real estate property tax assessments has been the lowest in memory and personal property assessments declined.
An appendix in the proposed budget showed Sebastian County property assessments totaled about $1.46 billion in 2013 and about $1.47 billion in 2014, an increase of 0.68 percent.
On the state level, of the $61-per-student increase in foundation aid granted by the Arkansas Legislature, $47 came from the statewide increase in county property assessment values.
"That means that a meager increase of $14 per student came from state general revenue on the heels of a $190 million state surplus at the end of the fiscal year," he wrote in his budget statement.
The proposed budget predicts nearly $153.11 million in revenue for the next school year and nearly $157.66 million in expenditures.
The district has a $26.7 million carry-over from the prior year, leaving an anticipated year-end balance of nearly $22.6 million.
No base salary increases will be in the budget, although Gooden said staff members were approved for step increases last spring.
Capital spending will drop to $5.7 million this year from $13.4 million last year. Gooden said the district has used up the money it had for its capital projects. Any capital money the district has left will be gone by the end of the school year.
"Any projects of significance will require an additional revenue source, specifically an increase in the local school tax rate," Gooden wrote.
Board members discussed in June a $78 million capital improvement program that would begin in the 2017 school year and require a 3-mill tax increase if it is approved in the 2016 school election.
The district now levies for debt service 11.5 mills, the unit of property tax from which the district gets most of its local revenue.
NW News on 08/22/2015