Friday, Aug. 15, 2008

Trustees weigh how to spend gas money

By MICHAEL HINES

News-Mirror Writer

School district trustees don’t have a lot of ideas about what to do with more than $6 million that has accumulated from gas lease revenue.

During a special Aug. 5 meeting, board members approved advertising the proposed tax rate of $1.47 per $100 valuation, a 2-cent increase compared to 2007-2008 that aims at paying off all the outstanding bonds. There will be $701.8 million in outstanding debt by the end of August. A public hearing regarding that increase is set for 7 p.m. Aug. 19 in the MISD Board Room at 605 E. Broad St.

The rate comes as part of a proposed $209 million budget that doesn’t reflect any money from revenue generated from gas leases. More than $6 million has come into the reserves since 2006 in bonus payments. School district officials have told trustees that how the money gets spent is up to the board.

Several board members explained that such a decision is up in the air.

Board president Gale Moericke thought setting up some sort of endowment might be useful; trustee Mike Leasor believed one of his top aims might be to focus on technology for students. Nothing is really definite, though.

"I haven’t settled on a personal opinion," Moericke said. "We need to decide overtly what we want to do with this money."

On the one hand, trustee Dan Phillips doesn’t see the funding poised to do too much. As it stands, the money is included in the district’s fund balance, or money set aside that would allow the district to operate for three to three-and-a-half months if disaster struck. That stood at more than $64 million by Aug. 31, 2007.

"The only thing that’s kept us up is we’ve had that extra money," he said regarding the fund balance, adding that the $3.2 million budgeted for special projects has given him reason for pause. "It’d be one thing if we didn’t have that money … I’m a little less likely to say let’s go find something to do with that (gas well) money."

Even going with the idea that the money should be spent doesn’t come with a flood of ideas. Leasor thought the better plan might be to let the ideas come from the district.

"There’s all kinds of fun stuff we need to do," he said. "I’d like to have the administration come to us and say 'This is what needs to get done.’"

There are items that it doesn’t make sense to focus on. For instance, funding reoccurring costs wouldn’t make sense because the money is finite. Plus, using the money to prevent a tax increase is also unlikely. The 2-cent increase had been expected since the 2006 bond was passed.

"The reality is it’s exactly what we said would happen," Leasor said.

What’s more, such a move could prove disastrous down the road.

"You can always give away your tax pennies, but you may not be able to get them back" because of state funding formulas, Moericke said. "We have to be very thoughtful about how we do that."

A meeting regarding the gas well money could be set for next week.