Loyal School District Talks Referendum During a Special School Board Meeting, Final
Saturday, July 12th, 2014 -- 7:30 AM
The Loyal School Board held a special board meeting on Tuesday evening to hear the public opinion of Loyal residents regarding a proposed referendum for the district.Loyal, being one of the only districts in the county that has asked for and failed to pass a referendum, is looking for support to fix some building maintenance issues the district is facing and helping with general operating expenses.
Loyal has made significant changes and cuts to their budget which helped in the short term, but the district is already facing a budget deficit by the next year. In term of mil rate, should the referendum pass, the greatest increase would be the first year. The Loyal District?s current mil rate sits at 9.01 and it would increase to 9.73 in 2014. That would equal out to a $4.50 increase per month for a $75,000 home. After that, the mil rate would steadily decrease each year and by 2018 Loyal would have a mil rate of 8.76.
When looking at the Greenwood, Granton, Spencer, Abbotsford, Colby, Neillsville and Owen-Withee School Districts, Loyal currently sits at 6th for mil rate. Only Neillsville and Owen-Withee are lower. With the increase, Loyal would only move up one spot at 5th. Several other schools have all had referendums pass including Granton in 2004, Greenwood in 2005 and 2010 and Owen-Withee in 2005 and just this spring.
For the public opinion portion of the meeting, about 20 people were at the event with a somewhat mixed reaction towards the referendum.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.