This is the budget being considered for the 2023-2024 school year. When looking at a school budget, please keep in mind that it is just that, a budget. If you compare 2021-2022 actual expenditures, to the 2022-2023 actual/estimated dollar amounts you will see we spend much less than we budget. The same will be true in 2023-2024. We do this to protect our budget authority, that is the dollar amount the State of Nebraska says we can legally budget.
If we taxed for $10,204,635 our levy would be close to $1.53. Even if we taxed for our budgeted general fund and special building fund (two funds we actually tax for) which total $8,246,615 our levy would be $1.25. We cannot legally tax for more than $1.05 without a vote of the district patrons. We will be taxing for $5,239,807, which is $5,283 than we asked for last year.
Increases in state aid and special education, as well as a property valuation increase will allow us to lower our levy slightly, but increased costs due infrastructure modernizations and annual employment cost increases also take a bite out of our revenues.
Loup City Public Schools is taking care of some rather expensive infrastructure improvements such as aging boilers, end of life heat-pumps, fire alarm systems, HVAC control systems, rusting doors and windows as well as lighting efficiency improvements. LCPS received a loan at 1% interest and payable over a 15 year period, to upgrade all of these aging systems. These aren't systems that we might have to replace, they are failing on a weekly basis. We are fortunate to be able to take advantage of this program that will save our taxpayers thousands of dollars per year in saved energy costs and capital cost avoidance. Capital cost avoidance is buying something today for a much lower price than what it will cost in the future. Heat pumps alone have gone from $260,000 for 39 (our number of heat pumps) to $540,000 in just 5 years. They are not getting cheaper.
If you have questions about the budget or tax levy, please feel free to contact me at the superintendent's office. We have a long-range plan to maintain the schools facilities, recruit quality faculty and staff while providing a great education for our children. I would be happy to visit with you about these plans and how we will achieve our goals.