If you’re a Bozeman resident, by now you’ve received a ballot from the county, opened it and thought, “There’s that word again”.
Levy.
We’ll pause here for a moment to allow your eyes to glaze over. At this point, we might as well officially amend the old saw to: Death, taxes and levies.
This time, it’s the Bozeman School District coming to you with tin cup in hand, asking you to back three levies on May 6. Two are general fund requests for elementary and high school operating levies seeking $490,000 per year and the third is basically re-upping the expiring building reserve maintenance fund at $2.3 million for six years.
That four-letter word aside, we strongly encourage you to vote “Yes” on all three relatively modest asks.
It is a time-honored tradition for Bozeman to support its schools on all fronts — we haven’t rejected a school district levy since 1984 — and now isn’t the time to back away, our overall tax fatigue notwithstanding.
In essence, the two general fund levies are for increasing teacher salaries, in part to enhance recruiting and retention but also to acknowledge their value in the highest-performing Class AA district in Montana.
Truth is, we could increase teacher salaries 50% across the board and educators would still struggle to pay household bills in our cost-prohibitive community — even with the Legislature recently upping the ante on starting teacher pay statewide by $100 million with the STARS Act.
Inflation has sprinted well ahead of teacher pay.
The STARS Act should be just a start for our classroom stars. Indeed, a strong argument can be made that the highest-paid members of our community should be medical personnel, first responders and public-school educators.
And let’s disabuse ourselves of the notion that teaching is somehow different because “they get summers off”. Anyone who knows a teacher knows they’re routinely working overtime on behalf of our kids, often reaching deep into their own modestly lined pockets to provide supplies for their classrooms.
All of this as expectations and burnout are at all-time highs.
As for the six-year Elementary Building Reserve Levy, this merely continues a fund for routine upkeep that expires in June. It replaces the $2 million OK’d by voters in 2019.
Inasmuch as Bozeman residents are already paying for the expiring fund, the reserve levy would be a scant $5.70 per year tax increase for homes assessed at $500,000.
For all three levies, you’re looking at about $1.50 per month. You read that right: a buck-fifty.
(Belgrade has a similarly modest ask on two general fund operating levies seeking to boost teacher salaries, provide supplies and enhance building maintenance, costing taxpayers less than $1 per month for owners of $500,000 residences).
Lest anyone think the Bozeman School District is spending willy-nilly with its taxpayer monies, consider: Ours is easily the most frugal of the state’s eight Class AA districts.
BSD’s 143.11 levied K-12 local school district mills are well below the Class AA average of 196.98, comfortably behind even Belgrade (168.96) and Butte (174.08). Tops is Helena at 244.06, followed by Missoula (231.89), Billings (215.0), Kalispell (205.29) and Great Falls (193.33).
There’s more: Bozeman School District has the highest Moody’s bond rating for fiscal responsibility in the state.
We’ve been getting our money’s worth.
We’ve also been getting unparalleled excellence from our teachers. Bozeman is well above the Montana average for high school graduation and also leads the state by wide margins in English language arts and math proficiency among juniors.
We have exceptional teachers in our public schools and we should want to keep them, for the short- and long-term benefit of our community.
Voting “Yes” on the three levies is just one way to let them know we’re behind them.
