Bowling Green City School’s five-year forecast has improved but the district will still be asking taxpayers for new money next year.
District Treasurer Cathy Schuller presented a revised forecast at Tuesday’s board of education meeting. She said shortly after filing the forecast in November as required by state statute, the district received the final assessed valuation numbers from the auditors in Wood and Henry counties.
Property tax collections will increase due to the reappraisals that occurred this year.
The district’s bottom line has improved but the need remains for new operating money in 2024, she said.
“It’s not going to take away our need for new money in fiscal year 2024, but it does help,” Schuller said.
The district has not asked for new operating money since 2010.
Her November projections showed $19,760,359 collected in property taxes in fiscal year 2024. That number is now $20,273,467.
The cumulative collection of property taxes over the next five years is estimated to be $945,129 more than the original forecast. The forecasted growth rate from fiscal years 2024-2028 rose to 1.02%, compared to the previous 0.76%, she said.
Due to the increase in property tax collection, the amount of deficit spending has decreased to $3,834,644 in fiscal year 2024 and $9,246,313 in fiscal year 2029.
“We’ll still be deficit spending because our expenses are higher than our revenue, but it doesn’t look as bad as it did in November,” Schuller said.
The November forecast showed deficit spending of $4,405,425 in fiscal year 2024, increasing to $10,528,539 in fiscal year2029.
The increased revenue will extend the life of the district’s cash balance, Schuller said.
The prior cash balance deficit in fiscal year 2026 is gone, she said. She estimated the district will have $1,928,826 available in cash at the end of that fiscal year.
Schuller predicted a negative balance of $6,229,426 at the end of fiscal year 2026 and a negative balance of $15,475,739 at the end of the following year.
She also made a revision to the general fund’s capital outlays, which were previously $250,000 annually starting next year. She lowered that amount to $37,000 for each of the next five years since the district does not anticipate costs increasing significantly.
Most capital outlays are not paid out of the general fund. Purchases, including repairs and buses, are made using Rover pipeline payments that are put into the capital project fund, which has a balance of about $3.5 million.
Rudolph resident Steve Bateson suggested moving the pipeline proceeds into the general fund.
“In my opinion, if you stop putting that money aside, let that Rover pipeline money go into the operating fund, it will help shore up our operating and maybe stretch out the window for when you have to go back to the taxpayers,” he said.
He suggested keeping current monies in the capital project fund and only transferring future pipeline payments into the general fund.
Schuller said the board has a resolution to transfer those pipeline proceeds into the capital project fund. She agreed the resolution could be changed but it would be a decision of the board.
Pipeline proceeds depreciate about 3% annually and this year’s collection is expected to be $1.2 million, she said.
“That’s a lot of money,” said Superintendent Ted Haselman, “but it’s not going to keep us off the ballot.”
While it may change the operational budget, moving those funds would take opportunities for capital projects away, he said.
The pipeline funds would have negligible impact on the $3.8 million in deficit spending expected this year, Schuller said.
