C.R. school board to review budget with preliminary numbers

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids school board members will review a proposed budget of almost $262 million at tonight's meeting.

The budget includes preliminary estimates of $254 million in revenues and $261.9 million in expenditures. Those numbers will change when the district completes its line-item budget in May and June.

Board members also will discuss the district's proposed levy rate for the 2011-12 school year. The proposed rate of $15.16 per $1,000 of taxable valuation is lower than the district's current levy rate of $15.17 per $1,000.

At that rate, the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 would pay $736 in school district property taxes next year, up from $712 this year. The change takes into account the lower levy as well as the fact that the state's rollback formula - which determines the percentage of a residential property's value that's subject to taxation - is increasing from 46.91 percent to 48.53 percent.

Steve Graham, the district's executive director of business services, told board members last month that it is strategy to publish a proposed levy rate that's on the high end of the range of possibilities. Once a proposed rate is published, board members can't approve a higher rate - but they can approve a lower one.

State law requires school boards to publish a proposed budget, hold a public hearing, and certify the budget and tax levy rates by April 15. Board members will approve the scheduling of an April 11 public hearing tonight.