Missoula Voters Will Likely See New School Levy Requests in May
Missoula voters are likely to see another school levy on their ballots this coming May. Missoula County Public School Communications Director Hatton Littman says school trustees approved the ability to place a levy on Tuesday night and gives some preliminary projections on what they could look like.
“The levy in the elementary district would be a little over $272,000 and in the High school district it would be a little over $178,000 and based on our very early projections, what we are seeing that even if voters passed these over-base levies, we would see a net tax reduction for voters,” Littman said.
The approval doesn’t guarantee that any levy will be on the ballot. Littman says the possible levies will cover costs outside of the reach of the over $150 Million in bonds passed in 2015.
“These levies are called operations levies, so the only things that they can fund are annual operating expenses: things like paying for teacher salaries, classroom supplies, paying our utility bills, things like that,” Littman said. “They are very separate and distinct form the bond which taxpayers passed in 2015, that bond can only pay for construction and capital expenditures on our buildings.”
Trustees will have to formalize the ballot levy language by April so the final levy amounts won’t be known until then.