Kirkwood Community College board to consider budget Thursday

The Kirkwood Community College board of Trustees on Thursday will consider approval of a 2013-14 preliminary budget that lowers the property tax rate of area residents by 1.3 percent.

At the meeting, the board will be asked to approve the tax levy amount for Fiscal Year 2014 and set the "not to exceed" budget amount, Chief Financial Officer Jim Choate said. State law requires Kirkwood to set that budget ceiling figure by March 15. Kirkwood officials could then approve a lower budget, but not a higher one, once the ceiling is set.

Approval of a detailed operating budget for FY 2014 and discussion of tuition rates for next year will come later this spring, Choate said, after Kirkwood officials have a better idea about state funding.

"Our true budgeting picture will become clearer toward the end of April when the legislative sessions begin to wind down," he said.

For fiscal 2014, which begins July 1, the trustees will consider a budget ceiling with total expenditures of about $154.8 million, a decrease from this year's expected total expenditures of about $162 million.

The proposed budget includes a decrease in the college's tax levy, from about $1.08 per $1,000 of taxable valuation to just more than $1.06 per $1,000 of taxable valuation.

However, because the state rollback value will increase by more than 4 percent next year, what area property owners pay will increase, Choate said. At the new rate, the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 will pay $56.24 in Kirkwood property taxes next year, an increase from that owner's tax bill of $54.76 this year, an increase of 2.7 percent.

The Kirkwood board will hold its meeting, beginning with a public hearing regarding the proposed budget, at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the B.A. Jensen Board Room of Kirkwood Hall.