001not constitute record of this meeting stand for the pledge United States of America the republ which stands thanks for no problem just want to make sure we're on top got uh any public comment on on agenda items seeing none we'll move right into discussion and action items for today yeah so oh yeah the first one's just just a discussion um we won't be making any decisions first of all thanks um we made a we had an error and when we needed to have this done um but we've been talking about levies and other things so really is what will most mostly be talking about um is two the resolution for an election which we have to do an election anyway and then three ballot language and that'll be really whether the ballot is going to
002contain um language around Renning a levy locally um for housing uh that will allow us to increase our general fund so I'll Dive Right In and stop me if you have any questions um Cara I know you've been tracking this closely corki as well so feel free to um um to round out any Corners that that may present themselves so House Bill 252 the Stars Act is really um done a lot of things to allow school districts to increase their general fund limits um and then to add more money into their general fund 99% of those new dollars are going to come from direct state aid and not on the backs of our local taxpayers so you know as we get into negotiations if we reach the the minimum thresholds to qualify for starac dollars
003you know we'll be see realizing about a 100 maybe little Slightly North of that $100,000 increase in our general fund that'll come via direct state aid that won't be you know L to our local taxpayer is what we want to talk more about today is the Stars act House Bill 252 also gives us the opportunity to add 6% 5 or 6% on to our Max budget for housing in areas of Montana that I think whatever we qualify for the absolute highest I forget with the calculation and the bills in the packet if you want to read through it um and see those numbers but it allows us to go 6% above our Max for housing now that doesn't just mean infrastructure that doesn't mean just structure we can do stiens with that we can do
004you know housing allowances down payment there's a plethora of things we can use that for that has to go to the local voters for approval that 6% um you know in our particular case as we've talked and everybody knows we have the second phase of housing coming online um you know hopefully in October this would allow us to really to almost bundle it up and have it paid for um without having to take any debt because servicing a debt was always part of the plan anyway not necessarily through a levy but possibly through you know a loan that we would pay back with the proceeds from the housing so it's one of those two things right um and you did that for that first round right for the first round we took a levy and
005Resort tax that was how that that was paid for it was significantly cheaper than two I will say that um but also if you remember we have $750,000 sitting in our pocket right now for that project through yccf and Big Sky Resort District um so all that said and then we also have some money um from the interest from the bond that we can allocate towards that too it's not going to quite get us across the Finish Line um but so that said you know we we if we were to run this and it were to pass we could use that to kind of button this project up moving forward this is a levy that exists as you'll see the ballot language in perpetuity um so we would we would go was 6% our Max
006in perpetuity moving forward then we could use that you know to help cover teacher raises um calling it something else or to establish fund funds to go back to giving housing allowances and things like that that's one option the other option is you know I I I just don't know and I'm happy to hear opinions from from other people I don't know what the opinion is around the appetite for an additional tax right now what all the talk that's happening not just in our community but Statewide and especially gon countywide about taxes um I don't know what your guys' pulses on on the um appetite for that of our community because we could delay for a year say the the other risk is the bill not passing I don't see a lot of evidence that
007it won't but the other option really what we can do is we could delay for a year borrow the money let the kind of tax talk settle somewhat um go get it next year and pay back to the loan and with that I'll answer any questions and certainly interested to hear comment and discussion um probably a question more for corki what what does the loan look like on servicing kind of the debt now the uh was it two sessions ago two sessions ago yeah the board the board has the authority on the and the time go out and and borrow money for the school district so we could we would go to the board of investment borrow the M the money we needed and set up whatever terms we wanted to make sure that we
008could we could afford the debt with the with the rental income um and so the school district would would be on We would service the debt ourselves we would not have to go to the taxpayers we would not have to raise a levy um so we could do that at any time and and it and help me here corki we we know another a neighboring district is now negotiating a loan through da Davidson as well yeah oh actually yeah for building repairs and upkeep for building repairs so we wouldn't necessarily be locked into the board of Investments that's just generally where school districts and government entities would would borrow their money um the rates aren't anything you know stupendous better or anything else um like that yeah they have some dollar amounts I know that
009I know the neighboring um school district is going for several several or a couple million so um I don't even know if the Border invest would go up that much we local bank the local bank as Dustin said we have the we would have the flexibility to borrow the money um we would just have to you know be able to pay it back and I think you said five or six% for housing um on the general funds so how do we get to $300,000 on that number so Dustin and I actually talked to mtsba we talked to Lance Melton about that and he said his he said it would be somewhere between 270 and 280 he recommend running the $300,000 at the end of the day we could we'll still be we'll be limited based
010on our final general fund numbers that we receive sometimes this spring and and we would only end up levying the exact amount that we could but the $300,000 threshold would get us there and so you can run that number you don't have to collect that number you can collect the number that you are maximized to collect so because we're not I mean we we're pretty close to 100% sure what that Max is going to be but again with House Bill 252 results of negotiations qualifying for that will have some impact on that so that was what Lance recommended could certainly be more conservative in that number as well um as is presented on the ballot yeah that we don't know the exact quality educator payment that's going to come in that will increase our general
011fund and then raise the percentage accordingly when do we find out about um how the bill that we spoke to 260 um yeah so 260 uh was amended significantly and going to and and going to be heard by that same committee have voted on we hope by uh the hope hopefully this week but for sure first thing next week but that's something that wouldn't come into play for another year still it wouldn't come into play for another year at least well based on the Amendments too it's not like yeah and and it wouldn't do a lot for this particular piece anyway other than you know when the num the the numbers would be slightly different on $100,000 house right and so what is the tax talk around I mean what are your thoughts on that
012I mean that I really heard too much but are we talking like property tax I know people were really up in arms about property taxes yeah I mean there there's just a lot of talk about taxes now good bad in well very little good right um but generally bad or indifferent that you know it just it's a lot tax taxes have a a big presence right now people hear and they just in the media and everywhere else so you know when we start tax talking about tax increases and honestly it's not super significant um you know on a million bucks it's what $33 a year might if I'm doing that correctly yeah I think the only thing that's hard there is there's prob you know between cold smoke and the parks and then you have
013the schools on there there's you know there's a lot of noise and certainly passion and and feelings um and maybe it drives some people to to vote um that wouldn't otherwise vote I don't know if you get a normal turnout in this election will and and it will be sitting on a ballot you know with three other tax things coming from the Big Sky resort area district is going to be on the ballot as well um and while that those projects aren't necessarily going to increase taxes it's it's still going to be three tax yeah we do one more thing on there we be one more thing on there about taxes right and you know people generally you know if we if we look at general fund levies we haven't failed one in 10 years
014yeah um now we haven't ran one every year for 10 years but we've at least ran eight and we haven't failed the general fund Levy um they haven't been quite this High say they've been significantly lower um because they've been for operations you know I think 70 80 was the highest we ran the levy for housing was 700,000 I want to say um that passed everything in this in this school district generally passes or fails 55 to 45 right um passes or fails so in general we we usually get good support from the from the community around things that you know look like you know for Teacher raises or things that we can do as the school to to make conditions better for all of our employees and I would put this in that bucket
015um again I just it's going to be a weird election what we run one for last year somebody reminded me 60 65 65 we were one of two schools in the county many that passed anything I think it was us and Three Forks passed anything um and that was in a non-legislative year where taxes were in the in the headlines every single day yeah um is there any is there any talk or do anyone the community aware of the two and half million dollars of County Equalization um no okay I mean us because we pay attention um because that that's the other thing I mean but that's that's after tax bill time but people's taxes are going to go up regardless of this vote um once this bill in Helena passes so um I mean
016it would do my recommendation would be to run it for 300 um and and kind of see where we land knowing it's a high risk um so I'm a little bit better than a coin flip but certainly um you know waiting a year isn't going to kill us um is what it would really kind of it would save us from having to take a little debt and you know we'll squeeze the stone out of that interest money and every place else we can scoop a little bit together to try to not have to put the district in a position to service a bunch of debt so just running for the trustees you know being able to go into next year's election where we we're going to have a building Reserve Levy that has to be
017re uped uh in a year and a couple other things say hey look we we haven't really you know the last five years we've asked for this um you know for operations and and then kind of see what happens with house bill or Senate Bill 260 um so I guess you know just e just said those three sentences or five sentences I'm back to a coin flip um and and really just interested in where you guys are sitting because I really don't know what the appetite is to pass something right now if it doesn't pass this time can we go again yeah yeah so we'd be eligible to do it again a big piece is positioning that is helping out teachers adjusting to you know everything we've been trying to raise money for of cost
018of living and housing for for teachers I think there's a lot of support for that in the community right there's a lot of support for cold smoke for that reason and there's also we don't have to we don't have to do it in perpetuity it can be once yeah what we would be back having this conversation again right if it did pass we just did it for once this 300,000 whatever dollar amount is agreed upon Will Roll uh on the next year on top of the next year's general fund even because I thought I understood him to say if we could do it you could just back off of that just go back to 100 per. no what well we we would not we couldn't we can't go backwards on it however if our general
019fund goes up and we have additional Authority we don't have to run for more we would just still just get the $300,000 on top of our dollar amount okay my my other question is and I don't is there benefit to um to the negotiations that are coming up where uh you do if if it was to do a one-year M one-year Matrix on the CBA you can see how this goes to to negotiate housing stiens or colas uh in Fisco year 27 I certainly think that helps create buyin right from teachers and from a community perspective yeah I mean it's it's kind of like we've talked before though right I mean it would just be Shuffle of the buckers around regardless um and I think with with the way that the house bill 252 is
020set now those raises are going to have to be kind of incremental in order to continue to be to qualify for it right so qualifying this year at adding $2,700 or whatever that number was that we came up with on everybody's on the lowest end salary that number is going to be that's going to be a moving Target um so I mean I think that the benefit really is however it's labeled or bucketed is that it's it's a 6% increase in the general fund that that's really the only benefit however it's allocated you know that that's again back to what we that's what we do um is is slided around here and there so you know you can call it a right we'll give you whatever each teacher a $3,000 living stipend a year from
021now um but we're just folding it right into your salary in order to keep up with the house bill 252 stuff so yeah I mean any amount of flexibility that was a long answer uh to your question but I think any amount of flexibility as we head into negotiations is great um yeah definitely yeah I mean so if we don't if we do it and we don't get it we can always go for it again we can get a feel of what it's going to be like if we don't get it see where everybody kind of stands and then if we do we do and then we're in good shape we don't have to take the debt we don't have to go that route we can pretty much cover what we have moving forward housing
022so I mean that sounds like a pretty good I would say I would be for it moving forward the school district's impact of the taxpayers will be going down the Boseman high school debt falls off after 26 that's the last year FIS year 26 FIS year 28 is the last uh last round of debt service on the elementary building so the overall impact of the school is going to be going down the last couple years or over the next couple years so I don't know that I don't know the timing matters or not um but it's a tough It's now's yeah yeah so if we what other for the uh Resort tax items on there how much would that are they asking for on on the ballot so they're not asking for anything as what
023they're doing is they they're breaking three projects out and asking for permission to borrow the money on those and pay it back with Resort tax dollars so I haven't seen their ballot language but it better be pretty direct if they want those to pass that your tax we're just borro they're Bor they're asking permission to borrow money against future collections okay so that's that's not a direct increase in everyone's taxes so and I haven't seen any other direct increases in people taxes across um that I've heard about from fire or anywhere El Matt you're on the fire board are you guys doing anything I'm sure we'll ask for something I can't remember I don't know if we've even finalized your budget yet but I don't think there's anything super dramatic coming okay I would just
024also I go ahead I would just chime in on kind of the debt servicing I'd love to leave that for what we really need what we don't know that we need kind of down the road this feels to me from a teacher perspective from a community perspective everyone's aware of the cost of living issues in Big Sky uh I think this one's an easy one an easier one to educate voters on as well so yeah I mean it's easy to say hey give a little more money it's gonna go straight into teachers um is there any downside to us asking for it this year I than just wearing people out many other districts are going to be bringing this as well right if they could get themselves eligible for the $252 they certainly will [Applause]
025yeah well so what do we need to do next then do we need to make a motion to approve this so the next motion then would be you would be motioning to approve the resolution calling for an election so this is our second one here we're moving on to Yes uh I'm just trying to find the right one approve the opening of discussion of the resolution of the election with the Levy right right yeah there you go yep do that one um i v wait um what what am I reading we're doing yeah make a motion to approve res yes I make a motion to approve the opening of discussion on the resolution for election with a levy with a levy I'll second oh well I see with the levy well there are two so
026we're going to talk about two Cara seconded yeah um so I I think we've talked that through the next will be the actual kind of ballot language and then we can kind of hone in on on a mount if we want to do that okay so we need a motion now for number three I think you need to vote first on that one oh sorry okay call for a vote all those in favor I I I any opposed pass unanimously move on um I make a motion to approve the opening oh2 approve the opening of ballot language discussion for May I'll okay so we have it written here is $300,000 um you know again the calculation on those property taxes 2.77 Mills um1 on $3.74 on a $100,000 home so again on a million doll
027house that's times um yeah the the language about the property taxes and the specific dollars of one three and six those that's state law so and then so is the so is the time frame is state law that's why that's in there too okay um so there's so you have two ballots in there um two two options for ballot language one is just for the two trustees um the other one is the levy and the two Trust trustees um and then once you know once you vote and get this in then you know over the next couple days I'll get some listening sessions and things together and and put those in your guys's calendars or get the calendar invites out to you and then we can start an education campaign so do we need to
028make a new motion or amend that make a new one you can make it just make a new one yeah to approve the opening of the ballot language as St just to approve the ballot language uh with the levy has presented I'll make a motion to approve the ballot language with the levy as present it I second the motion any other discussion or questions okay call for a vote all those in favor I I I any opposed passes unanimously okay all right thanks you guys um thanks so Mar Mar 11th um yeah we yeah okay so I'll I'll get something out to everybody um we'll meet as a budget committee maybe late next week heading into the March meeting okay Karen Matt corki because there will be some things we can talk about from house
029bille 260 and then I'll get a some educational sessions together and we'll we'll get after it PP it up perfect good meeting a Jour thanks guys thanks everyone thank you