By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Barton Community College plans to drop their mill levy for the 2023-2024 school year, but will be seeking more property tax money than last year to help with a $1.1 million deficit for the upcoming year.
Barton pulled a 30.081 mill levy this past school year, generating more than $9 million in taxes levied from the public. With increases in real estate and oil and gas valuation, Barton County’s estimated valuation increased this year by nearly $32 million, meaning each mill is worth more in the 2024 fiscal year. The college needed a mill levy of 27.959 in 2024 to raise the same amount of tax dollars as last year, or to keep the Revenue Neutral Rate. The Board of Trustees agreed to position the mill levy at 29.380 to garner approximately $434,000 extra in taxes this year.
Scheduled to collect $10,373,627 in taxes,
Barton’s Vice President of Administration Mark Dean said the college’s deficit for 2024 will
drop to $1.1 million.
"Hopefully, we won't spend the entire $1.1 million next year," said Dean. "You always have positions that are unfilled and some areas don't spend everything they were allotted. Tuition and fees are unknown. Summer enrollment so far looks very good, but we don't know what's going to happen in the fall or spring."
The 2024 fiscal year budget includes an additional $1.9 million in expenses, with the
majority of the bump coming from a 3% pay increase for employees to maintain
market value salaries.
Barton finished this year with a $1.1 million deficit and will again operate
2024 anticipating a loss of $1.1 million. President Dr. Carl Heilman said the
deficit was taken from the college’s cash reserves, which is a fund that
consisted of more than $20 million last year.
"We're looking at a budget in terms of using the reserve fund, and how much the reserve fund the trustees would feel comfortable using," said Heilman. "This gives a good example that we reserved budget funds and to be careful with the track record in terms of using them. Sometimes we have not used it, but times are different now and circumstances have changed."
Barton outlined the 2023 deficit was caused by unfilled positions that were
filled, new programs, construction, lower enrollment and inflation costs.
With the jump in valuations, the upcoming 29.380 mill levy for Barton Community
College will be the lowest rate since 2005.