Havre mill levies set for $171,000

New levies have been set to provide funding to the Havre Public School districts — a total of $171,000 between high school and elementary district levies.

The HPS Board of Trustees held a special meeting Thursday night to discuss the amount that would be affixed to recently raised mill levies. Those levies are set for $98,000 for high school funds and $73,000 for elementary school funds.

"We're setting the levies based on our best estimates of what the state funding will be, " District Superintendent Andy Carlson said. "They represent what I believe what we can ask of our community. "

The levies had to be set by today so that they could be voted on during the school's election on May 3.

The difficulty for Carlson and those involved in district planning lies in the uncertainty that surrounds the issue of state funding.

The district has only the most vague of ideas how much money will end up coming to any school districts when the Legislature approves the state budget.

Carlson, through most of this session, had been watching Senate Bill 403, sponsored by Sen. Llew Jones, that would have changed the proposed distribution of funds, particularly those that come from oil and gas production tax revenue.

That bill failed to pass the State Senate last week. Carlson was disappointed.

"There were several parts of that bill that would have been extremely beneficial to our district, " Carlson said, adding that would have provided the district with more funding and flexibility in budgeting.

In a public forum held by the district last week, before SB 403 died, Carlson said that without the bill, the district would be in a tougher situation and could possibly require a mill levy of $533,550.

When it came time to set levy amounts, the district could not ask for that much.

"We couldn't ask our local taxpayers to support a mill levy of that size, " Carlson said. "I don't think that is a reality we have now. "

With the levies set, Carlson and the district still have to wait and see what the Legislature will do before anyone can get a firm grasp on funding issues.

If more state funding falls through, and the local financial situation gets more drastic, Carlson says "everything would have to be looked at. "