Where will the SILO money go?

A copy of the Cedar Rapids school district's SILO Cash-Flow Analysis can be found here: http://www.cr.k12.ia.us/services/BusinessServices/Documents/SILOForcast.pdf

Here's what you need to know.

The numbers in yellow are revenue, money coming in to the district for infrastructure.

The numbers in orange are expenditures. The list includes the original projects promised to voters in 2007, plus flood recovery and some additional projects.

The numbers in purple are the fund balance.

The chart flows left-to-right, listing all money coming in and going out each fiscal year. There is a decrease in the revenue after FY 2012 – that's because the lawmakers promised Linn County voters that the schools would receive 100 percent of the funding for the first 5 years of the tax.

“The Legislature, to help Linn and Johnson county get this passed, allowed us to keep all the revenues for the first half of the 10-year period,” said Steve Graham, the district's executive director of business services. “So the reason why it drops is because (after FY 2012) we're going to receive only the average. Anything that is above the average is goes into a statewide pool and distributed to counties that are below the average.”

Another thing to note – the projects drop off after FY 2019. That's because the district will stay in the project timeline it promised voters during the 2007 SILO campaign. The district will pay the money it borrowed to complete its flood recovery construction during this time.

Because it impossible to predict revenue growth and construction inflation 10 to 15 years from now, conservative estimates have been used.

"What you don't want to have is a surprise to the disadvantage of the school district," Graham said. "If there's going to be a surprise, you want it to be an advantage."