The Superintendent's Blog

Two traits I’ve appreciated the most in Millard are the district's open and thorough planning processes. Both are especially important when it comes to our finances. With the recent special session of the legislature, rising property valuations, inflation, and ongoing workforce shortages, financial considerations are especially important right now, and I wanted to take a minute to make sure you have information about our current budget and other fiscal matters. I apologize for the length of this blog. In the spirit of transparency, I felt it was necessary to err on the side of being complete over concise.

Our top priorities remain the same - to provide an outstanding educational program and to manage our resources in a responsible manner. The Nebraska Department of Education’s most recent data shows Millard Public Schools is the lowest spending per pupil school district in Nebraska. Concurrently, our efficiency and strong student achievement outcomes have been a point of pride for our Board of Education, and they know the key to these results are teachers and staff. The Board has always recognized our greatest resource is people. In this time of considerable education workforce shortages, the market has become increasingly competitive to be able to staff our schools and compete with private sector wages for all employee groups.

Therefore, the biggest investment in the 2024-25 budget is an average increase in staff compensation of 5.2%. Since approximately 80% of our budget is personnel costs, this factor was prominent in our planning. We counterbalanced the increase in personnel by holding most non-personnel expenses at 0%, and by making other budget cuts and realignments adding up to more than $9 million. As a result, our total general fund budget is slated to grow by a conservative 1.49% in the current fiscal year. This summarizes our expense side of budget planning.

Turning to revenue, unfortunately we are receiving a decline of more than $10 million in state aid this school year. Revenue from federal ESSER funding also wrapped up in the 2023-24 budget year. This accounted for more than $5 million in revenue each year that we will no longer receive. All together with all other variables being equal, we began the current budget year planning process with $16 million less in revenue from state and federal sources than we had the prior year.

Even with a modest increase in our budget of 1.49%, the decline in state and federal sources of funding created a gap between budgeted expenses and revenue. We plan to close the gap three ways: first, the $9 million in cuts and realignments I mentioned earlier; second, pulling $4 million from our cash reserves; and third, increasing the levy from $1.098 to $1.118.

Planning the 2024-25 budget was uniquely complicated. We have spent considerable time and effort to reach this point, and we believe the plan is balanced and responsible given the circumstances. This was also recognized by the taxpayer watchdog group, Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom. In a letter they submitted to our Board of Education, they gave the 2024-25 Millard Public Schools budget an “A” grade. Below is a quote from the letter that captures the sentiment they shared in their feedback:

The budget met every one of the criteria listed (for an excellent school board budget). It utilized strategies to avoid a property tax increase to balance the budget and accounted for future financial contingencies. A majority of revenue funds instructional services. Under spending in previous budgets has allowed for maneuverability in the present budget. Your chief financial officer has conscientiously provided all budgetary information to the public in a timely manner and has made himself available to answer all of our questions. In summation, we are giving your FY 2025 budget an “A” grade.

- Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, Public Board Comment, July 8, 2024

While we have taken steps to moderate the impact of declining state and federal revenue on you, the taxpayer, we also recognize the growing burden you have experienced in recent years with rising valuations. This is one of the reasons why we worked so hard on last year’s budget to be able to drop the levy of $1.210 in 2022-23 to $1.098 in 2023-24 when state funding did increase. Unfortunately, despite our efforts here locally, there remains considerable volatility in school funding in Nebraska.

This underscores some of the conversations you may have been following around property tax relief in the recent special session of the legislature. First and foremost, it’s important that you know that Millard Public Schools supports property tax relief. For several years now, we have engaged in good faith with elected officials to explore solutions to lower the property tax burden. Additionally, the Millard Board and administration have consistently modeled fiscal responsibility by being Nebraska’s lowest per pupil spending district and by having one of the lowest overall total levies in the Omaha-Metro.

With 244 school districts in Nebraska who vary in geography, size, demographics, distributions of property by category (e.g., residential, commercial, agriculture, etc.), it is certainly a complicated endeavor to reduce property taxes without negatively impacting school funding. However, it remains our belief that it is possible to achieve both meaningful property tax relief while concurrently adequately funding schools.

We have consistently advocated for a sustained, well-planned, collaborative process that includes a representative group of stakeholders who have the necessary knowledge and expertise to develop a quality plan for all of Nebraska. We are hopeful a strategy such as this will be employed in the future as we strive to be solution-oriented in our approach.

With regard to the outcome of the special session, LB 34 was passed by the legislature and signed into law on August 20, 2024. LB 34 front-loads an already existing income tax credit to property owners they previously needed to apply for annually when filing their taxes. The credit itself was increased from 30% in the most recent tax year to approximately 33-35% in 2025.

As a district we support front-loading the tax credit because unfortunately it has gone unclaimed by many property owners. In fact, in Millard, only approximately half of property taxpayers claimed the income tax credit in the most recent fiscal year. In 2025, a property owner will have their school property tax obligation reduced by approximately 33-35%. For example, if a person would have otherwise had a $3,000 school property tax obligation, with the credit front-loading it would instead be approximately $1,980. By front-loading the tax credit, a property owner would have never needed to pay the property taxes in the first place. We believe this structure will ensure all property owners receive the intended benefit and provide a more accurate and transparent picture of the overall property tax burden in Nebraska. The Millard Public Schools Board and administration remain committed to being engaged in the exploration of quality legislative solutions to provide property tax relief while concurrently properly funding schools.

This was a deep dive into school finance. Thank you for taking the time to read it. Our district takes great pride in the quality of the academic program we provide and the efficient use of our limited resources. We appreciate your ongoing support and engagement in the work of our schools. Should you have further questions about the budget, please feel free to contact the District’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Chad Meisgeier at cmmeisgeier@mpsomaha.org or 402-715-8401.

From Left to Right Back Row: Board Member Mike Pate, Board Member Lisa Schoenberger, Superintendent Dr. John Schwartz, Treasurer Amanda McGill Johnson, Vice President Mike Kennedy

From Left to Right Front Row: Secretary Linda Poole, President Stacy Jolley

✉️ Email: MPSCommunicates@mpsomaha.org
🌐 Website: www.mpsomaha.org
📞Phone: 402.715-8200

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