School Budget Grows - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

School Budget Grows

Minot school board members approved the preliminary budget that will go to the county auditor for figuring property taxes for next year.
The board OK'd the early budget that shows a five percent increase in proposed spending from a year ago.
It moves the school's total spending to just under 80-million dollars with a projected deficit of nearly two million dollars.
That's very close to the projected deficit last year - a deficit that was turned into a surplus through some belt-tightening.
Business Manager Scott Moum says the five percent increase comes mainly from contracts with workers in the district - contracts that lock in about 80% of the district's spending.

Scott Moum, Minot School Business Manager) "A projected deficit again of 1.9 million and we'll watch what we spend and try to balance that to the best of our ability.  But we had built-in increases to 80% of our budget already with our two year agreements with all of our employee groups.  That's the largest part of it."

Moum said the school budget increase means a tax hike of about 72 dollars on a 200-thousand dollar house for a resident of the Minot district.