School Board votes 'no' on property tax reduction

Property taxes are staying put as the Jamestown Public School Board voted “no” on Monday’s meeting to a 10-mill reduction over two years, which would have saved taxpayers a total of $800,000.

Roy Musland, School Board member, moved to bring the discussion back after it was tabled at the last meeting.

Musland said there would still be a budget surplus of around $5.2 million after giving taxpayers some relief. He also said the district will see an annual savings of about $115,000 due to a new bill putting 80 percent of the cost for students at the Anne Carlsen Center on the state, not the district.

Musland’s also said if the 276 students who are either home-schooled or enrolled in private schools would be attending public schools the district would receive $1,104,000 from the state.

“The idea that we are once again talking about a budget when we don’t have a budget, in my opinion is not prudent,” said School Board member Gail Martin.

Superintendent Bob Toso said the district will have a surplus for the first year of the next biennium, but after that will see around $500,000 in deficit spending. The two years would balance each other out, he said. This is in part because of the end of the stimulus.

Nine years ago the district was deficient spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We did make some difficult decisions and we cut spending and we got to where the budget was balanced before this huge influx of federal dollars,” Musland said.

The motion to approve a 10-mill reduction failed 8-1 with Martin and board members Shelly Jystad, Gary Peterson, Greg Allen, Rosemary McDougall and Tanya Ostlie opposed and Musland in favor. Heidi Larson and Scott Walch were not present.

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