Post Falls school district declines emergency levy

Post Falls taxpayers will not be paying for an emergency school levy this fall.

A Saturday morning school board meeting scheduled to consider a possible levy has been canceled.

At the start of each school year, Idaho education law allows boards in growing districts to seek property tax relief, without voter approval, to cover the cost of educating additional students for whom the district is not receiving a state appropriation.

The Post Falls district started the year with 20 more students, it rose to 40 and then fell off again.

"While we still qualify for a small emergency levy, we are going to focus instead on what we need to do with our supplemental levy this spring," Keane told The Press.

Supplemental levies are voter-approved local property tax measures that provide funds to support school district operations. Supplemental levy dollars cannot be used to pay for school building or renovation projects.

"As you know we have the lowest supplemental levy rate in North Idaho and we will need an infusion of revenue to do even what we are doing now for next year," wrote Keane, in a message to The Press. "Our bigger budget issues are caused by the state reducing our appropriation by $3,600,000 since 2009."

While his district cut its budget by $1.5 million in the last few years, Keane wrote that they will need at least another $1.5 million to continue providing the same programs they have this year.