Tuesday, August 5 is a special election day in Missouri. Absentee voting is open now; the last day to register is this Wednesday, July 9.
Only a few items will be on the ballot across the Ozarks, but residents of the Ozark School District will have one item up for a vote.
They’ll be asked to decide on a no-tax increase levy transfer. That would allow the district to route some of its annual tax revenue from its debt service fund into its operating expense fund.
"We are just moving it from one fund to the other without raising taxes,” District Superintendent Dr. Lori Wilson explained. “The tax levy that we have at $4.14 (per $100) will remain the same.”
She compares it to allowing the school district to move money from a proverbial savings account into a checking account. Dr. Wilson says as the district pays off more of its debt every year, it has more money in its debt service fund than it needs and transferring some of those funds is one of few options the district has to keep up with the growing expenses. By state law, it has to ask voters to approve the move.
“Unfortunately, a school district cannot make more widgets. We cannot go out and increase revenue on our own by selling something,” Dr. Wilson said. But expenses keep rising.
Dr. Wilson said the transfer would help the district without asking for more money from the public. The transfer would keep the overall tax levy the same but move approximately $1.5 million annually into the district’s operating fund, with a priority of spending that money on staff salaries and retention.
“I know we have the best school district in the area and our teachers want to be here, but we also value them, value them and our staff, and we want to do what's right by them.”