Surplus a good problem to have

It's pretty easy to see which businesses spent unwisely and didn't plan for rainy days, from slight dips to deep recessions. They're the ones whose offices or storefronts are empty.

We're grateful that the Coeur d'Alene School District, with an apparent surplus balance after its annual audit, protects its taxpayers and patrons far better than many businesses do their customers.

Final numbers won't be disclosed until Nov. 4, but it's clear that the district will move forward with a sizable hunk of cash on hand. As part of annual contract negotiations, agreements are in place for how that surplus will be disbursed. By those agreements, district employees are likely entitled to a one-time payment - great news to them and perhaps a little less thrilling to taxpayers who wouldn't mind a rebate.

Last year, the balance was roughly $1.3 million higher than expected, and district officials suggest that this year's could be higher still, perhaps much higher. Superintendent Matt Handelman noted this week that officials might be detecting a trend - a positive trend compared to the alternative of spending more than you actually have.

Applying a corporate perspective to school business, we have no complaint with a bulging surplus. Coeur d'Alene district school board members, administrators and employees have worked feverishly to implement many cost-control systems, changes whose impact sometimes takes well over a year to fully play out. This commitment to savings and fiscal responsibility can lead to significant miscalculations, but again, it's better to be on the positive side of a miscalculation than the negative.

If there is a trend - if the district's fiscal controls are so effective that future budgets and the employee contract negotiations that consume the lion's share of those budgets - we offer two suggestions.

One, the burden borne by taxpayers must be targeted for relief. Future levy requests should reflect the budget realities of the times, and in negotiations with employees, officials should ensure that the district itself - representing taxpayers - be able to hold onto at least half of any surplus. That money could be saved for rainy days that are sure to come, no matter how sunny it is out today.

And two, nobody should begrudge the many hundreds of district employees their one-time payments from the surplus. Great companies reward their employees for helping save money. In that sense, school districts should be no different.