Nearly 80 percent of the Minnesota school districts that asked their voters for local property tax money on Tuesday got at least some of what they asked for, the highest rate since 1997, according to the Minnesota School Boards Association.
The association reported Wednesday that 114 districts went to their voters for property tax levies for general operating expenses, and 90 received approval on at least one question. Of those seeking to renew a levy, which wouldn’t raise local taxes, 57 out of 58 were approved. Nineteen districts also sought voter approval for capital expenses. Nearly 70 percent were approved. Together, it was the most school funding requests on a single Election Day since 2001.
While voters overwhelmingly supported renewing existing levies, they were slightly less enthusiastic about raising their property taxes for new levies and turned back requests from Duluth to Sleepy Eye despite dire warnings about future budget cuts.
Many districts put multiple questions on the ballot. For example, voters in the state’s largest school district, Anoka-Hennepin, approved an existing levy that raises about $48 million a year, narrowly supported a new levy for buying technology and rejected new taxes for future operating expenses.
Schools have become more reliant on money raised from local property taxes over the past decade as the state’s per-pupil spending has failed to keep up with inflation, according to figures from the Minnesota Department of Education. Currently, 90 percent of Minnesota schools supplement their state support with local taxes.
Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius said the situation is unfair to school districts that can’t persuade local voters to pass an operating levy, but the results Tuesday also show that many Minnesotans are willing to pony up for important services.
It has been challenging for the few districts that don’t have operating levies, said John Cselovski, superintendent of the Sleepy Eye schools. His small district in central Minnesota has never had an operating levy and voters turned aside another request for one on Tuesday.
“We’ve reached the threshold of reductions, we can’t look at cuts anymore unless there will be 40 to 50 kids in a class,” he said. “It would destroy the school. I won’t destroy the school.”
He said the district will try to maintain its current staffing level by spending down its reserves until they run out. Meanwhile, Cselovski said district leaders would consider converting to a four-day school week to save a day’s worth of spending on buses and heat.