Current through Register Vol. 18, September 20, 2024
(1) The trustees
must adopt a budget at least equal to the BASE budget.
(2) For purposes of determining general fund
spending limits, the trustees may add to the current year budget:
(a) the sum of any increases in state funding
for any/all of the following:
(i) the direct
state aid associated with the basic entitlement;
(ii) the direct state aid associated with the
per-ANB entitlement;
(iii) the
quality educator payment;
(iv) the
at-risk student payment;
(v) the
Indian education for all payment deposited into the general fund;
(vi) the American Indian achievement gap
payment; or
(vii) the
data-for-achievement payment.
(b) in the initial year of implementation of
a full-time kindergarten program, an amount equal to (one-half the kindergarten
enrollment in the current year) times (the sum of the maximum per-ANB rate for
an elementary ANB and the Indian education for all payment for an ANB for the
current year).
(3) If a
district's current year budget, including any additions from (2), does not
exceed the ensuing year's maximum budget, the following limits apply.
(a) Without voter approval, the trustees may
adopt a budget equal to the sum of:
(i) the
ensuing year's BASE budget;
(ii)
the highest revenue previously authorized by the electors of the district or
imposed by the district in any of the previous five years to support the
general fund budget;
(iii) the fund
balance available to reappropriate to fund the over-BASE budget;
(iv) the prior year's excess reserves under
20-9-141,
MCA, available to fund the over-BASE budget;
(v) the estimated tuition revenue available
to fund the over-BASE budget;
(vi)
the amount of the reduction of flexible nonvoted property tax levy authority in
the transportation fund, the bus depreciation fund, the tuition fund, and the
adult education fund; and
(vii) the
estimated oil and natural gas production taxes for school districts available
to fund the over-BASE budget.
(b) With voter approval of the budget
exceeding (3)(a), the trustees may adopt a budget not greater than the ensuing
year's maximum.
(4) If a
district's current year budget, including any additions in (2), exceeds the
ensuing year's maximum budget, the following limits apply:
(a) Without voter approval the trustees may
adopt a budget equal to the sum of:
(i) the
ensuing year's BASE budget;
(ii)
the highest revenue previously authorized by the electors of the district or
imposed by the district in any of the previous five years to support the
general fund budget;
(iii) the fund
balance available to reappropriate to fund the over-BASE budget;
(iv) the prior year's excess reserves under
20-9-141,
MCA, that will be used to fund the over-BASE budget;
(v) the estimated tuition revenue available
to fund the over-BASE budget;
(vi)
the amount of the reduction of flexible nonvoted property tax levy authority in
the transportation fund, the bus depreciation fund, the tuition fund, and the
adult education fund; and
(vii) the
estimated oil and natural gas production taxes for school districts available
to fund the over-BASE budget.
(b) With voter approval of the amount of
budget exceeding (4)(a), the trustees may adopt a budget not greater than the
current year budget with additions as calculated in (2).
(5) With respect to (3)(a)(vi) and
(4)(a)(vi), the ongoing authority for any nonvoted increase in the over-BASE
budget levy imposed must be decreased in future years to the extent that any
increase in other nonvoted property tax levies is imposed.
(6) For a nonoperating district that is
reopening, budget limitations for the general fund shall be based on the last
operating year's budget for the general fund. The general fund budget adopted
for the last year in which the district operated a school will be considered
the prior year's budget for purposes of determining budget limitations for the
year of reopening. The district must adopt a general fund budget that is at
least equal to BASE and does not exceed the maximum general fund budget for the
year of reopening.
(a) For a nonoperating
district that reopens a school under
20-6-502,
MCA, the school isolation provisions in
20-9-302, MCA,
will be applied based on the budgeted ANB in the last operating year and the
budgeted ANB in the year the school reopens.
(7) For purposes of determining the spending
limit for a school district participating in a full service cooperative for
special education programs, the BASE budget amount and maximum general fund
budget may include a portion of the payments received by the full service
cooperative in support of special education programs. The Superintendent of
Public Instruction will notify each school district participating in a
cooperative of its payments for use in setting its BASE budget and maximum
general fund budget for the ensuing school fiscal year.
(8) The Superintendent of Public Instruction
shall monitor the general fund budgets of each school district to ensure
compliance with the spending limits established in
20-9-308,
MCA. The Superintendent of Public Instruction may request a revised budget from
any district whose general fund budget is not within the limits using the
guidelines established in ARM
10.10.503.
(9) When budgeting for the first year of
operation following a consolidation or annexation:
(a) the budgets of the combining districts
for the year preceding the first year of operation as a consolidated or annexed
district will be summed;
(b) the
amount calculated in (8)(a) will be used in place of the current year budget in
(2) through (4) for purposes of determining the consolidated or annexed
district's ensuing year budget limitations; and
(c) regardless of the relationship of the
individual combining districts' adopted budgets to their individual BASE and
maximum budgets for the year preceding the first year operating as a newly
consolidated district, the amount calculated in (8)(a) will be assumed to have
been no more than the maximum budget of that year for purposes of determining
the ensuing year's budget of the newly consolidated district.
AUTH:
20-9-102,
MCA;IMP:
20-9-308,
20-9-315,
MCA
