Ratepayers in the Mountain View School Division (MVSD) will see a slight reduction in their tax bills as the board of trustees passed a 2022-23 budget focused on the learner and the learning environment, with a special emphasis on the classroom.
While this year’s budget saw an increase of almost $1.5 million in provincial funding for the coming year, an increase of 6.3 per cent, things were a little complicated because a lot of the increase did not flow through the funding formula, MVSD secretary-treasurer Bart Michaleski said.
“They gave us the money in kind of one-time payments because of all the inflationary pressures we’re dealing with,” he said, citing contract settlement costs, insurance and fuel costs as some examples. “But suffice it to say they gave us a fair bit of money in the current year, 2021-22, almost $1.3 million, and then gave us a little over $1.2 million in additional one-time funding for 2022-23.”
As a result, MVSD’s budget is 3.8 per cent higher than last year at $45,458,887, an increase of $1,657,844.
“Our five-year average (increase) is about one per cent, so the budget itself is up quite a bit,” Michaleski said, adding local taxation remains the same at the direction of the province as some of the money received from the government was to offset any tax increases. “So the special levy will remain at the same dollar amount it has for a third year in a row now. Our mill rate will actually drop a little bit from 14.62 to 14.54 and that’s just because we had a little bit of a property assessment increase.”
Residential property within the division has seen a .9 per cent increase in total assessed values since 2021. With the drop in the mill rate residential property valued at $150,000 will see a decrease of $5.24 on this year’s tax bills. Farmland has seen a .3 per cent increase in total assessed values resulting in a $3.03 reduction per $150,000, while commercial property increased in value by .1 per cent resulting in a $7.57 tax reduction per $150,000.
In terms of expenditures, MVSD’s largest increase was in staffing as trustees focused on maintaining staffing levels.
“And, in fact, we actually had in budget, an increase of one teaching position and that was to support the business program at the (Dauphin) high school, the Applied Commerce program,” Michaleski said, adding there were other minor changes in staffing that really did not affect the budget. “Eighty per cent of our increase in budget, $1,375,000, is in staffing costs.”
The remaining $283,256 in increased expenditures for non-salary related budgets primarily included technology infrastructure, insurance, fuel and utilities costs.
The result is expenditures will outpace revenue by approximately $171,000 in 2022-23. It is only the second time in Michaleski’s career with the division that the board has approved a deficit budget.
“I’m not a big proponent of deficit budgeting, nor is the board,” Michaleski said.
Michaleski said the decision to run a deficit was made after meeting with the province where the division indicated the $1.3 million increase received for 2021-22 was more than what was needed, while the $1.2 million received for the coming year was not enough.
“The department basically said because every division is in the same boat with all these costs . . . if you needed more of that money in 2022-23 than in the current year just designate some of that (2021-22) money as surplus in your financial statements and carry it forward to next year and use it to offset your budget,” he said, adding the province is planning to have a new funding formula in place in 2023-24. “Based on how this new formula is supposed to work for us, it shouldn’t be an issue. So that’s why we agreed to do a deficit budget. Obviously, they’re going to have to manage things just to make sure that they can mitigate that deficit as much as they can next year.”
Board chair Floyd Martens said the transition that is occurring in education highlights that the majority of available resources are being prescribed to school divisions, providing budget revenue totals that are finite, including the dollars generated through local taxation.
MVSD worked hard to make the tough decisions on where those resources are best used, he added.
“The deliberations required to prepare and finalize the 2022-23 operating budget become increasingly more difficult as greater restrictions are placed on available funding. These restrictions impact how we can address what our communities want for their educational system,” Martens said. “We are confident in our budget decisions as they prioritize the needs of the learner and the classroom.”
