Tax Levy Discussion Planned for Board Study Session

Taxes will be a focal point of tonight’s study session of the Lakeville Area Public Schools Board of Education.

Discussion items for the special meeting—which begins at 7 p.m. at the —include tax levy/refunding opportunities and board goals for the upcoming school year.

But the tax levy is expected to take center stage, considering the district’s recent history of budget adjustments and a forecast for more budget shortfalls.

Whether or not the school board decides to move ahead with an operating levy referendum to ease the pain of future reductions remains to be seen. A final decision on placing a levy question on the ballot is not expected for several months.

The Lakeville district made , which led to the closure of , the elimination or reduction of a number of programs and the layoff of scores of teachers, among other impacts.

And according to the district’s director of business services, Mark Klett, budget reductions could be in the district’s future, as well.

“If the same assumptions were made for the next biennium that were used during the current, we could have another deficit of over $13 million for the biennium” of 2013-2015, Klett says in SunThisweek.

Voters defeated the district’s most recent , in 2010.

The outcome of a levy vote might be different this time around, however.

A recent survey conducted by Springsted Inc. shows that 60 percent of the 400 district residents polled would support a “modest” operating levy, defined as a $168 annual increase in school taxes on a home valued at $230,000.