NEW SHARON — The North Mahaska School Board recently passed a portion of their levies with management and PPEL levies being voted in, but what is the deal with these levies? What are they and what do they mean to both the taxpayer and the schools involved?

North Mahaska School Superintendent Randy Moffit laid out how the North Mahaska School District handles these issues.

According to Moffit, the levies can be divided into two sets: the general fund, or operating fund, and the schoolhouse fund.

Generally, the North Mahaska School District budgets about $4 million for the general fund.

The amount coming in from state aid is a part of that general fund, and that is set up like a barrel, said Moffit.

The amount of money brought in per each student, set by the state, makes up the total amount the barrel will hold.

First in the barrel comes a base of a $5.40 (per $1,000 of assessed land value) property tax levy. Then, the state kicks in the amount needed to reach a certain percentage, believed to be about 90 percent. Then, additional property taxes make up the rest to fill that barrel.

“And the idea is if you’re a poorer district, that $5.40 isn’t going to raise as much money, so the state will put more money into a poor district,” said Moffit. “If you’re a property-rich district, then that $5.40 is going to raise more of it, maybe all of it, and then the state will give you less money or maybe not any at all, if you have enough coming in.”

On top of the barrel, included in the general fund, are miscellaneous things like the selling of property such as school buses, federal funds, Phase I and II, categorical funding and the like.

The general fund also includes what is known as an ISL, or Instructional Support Levy, which requires voter approval. The money, which can come in any number of “mixes” involving any combination of income tax surtax and property tax, goes to wherever it is designated to go in the general fund.

Said Moffit, “We do not have that in place.”

What they do have in place is a management levy, which can be and has been passed by the board, another part of the general fund.

According to Moffit, this is typically used for paying property insurance, liability insurance and unemployment claims. Plus, this type can be used with paying early retirement as well.

“We pretty much use it exclusively for insurance premiums and unemployment claims,” said Moffit. “That’s all we use it for.”

The board just passed this levy at the last school board meeting. They passed it in a different way, said Moffit. The board passed it to raise $80,000 for the general fund.

Also included in the general fund are the cash reserve, at-risk and the special-ed negative balance.

Moffit explained what these three categories are and what they mean: “The cash reserve is used when you have spending authority and want to back it up with cash. When the state made a 2.5 percent cut in 2003-04, they left us with the authority, but not the cash. The cash reserve levy allows you to raise cash to back up the spending authority. At-risk and the special education negative balance are similar in that the state allows additional spending authority but you must do a cash reserve levy to back up the authority with cash.”

The general fund is completely separate from the next set of levies known as the school house fund.

The PPEL, or Physical Plant and Equipment Levy, is a part of that fund.

The money received from this levy is restricted to grounds and equipment costs.

According to Moffit, it used to be equipment purchases had to be over $2,500 for PPEL money to be used, but that has since come down to $500 because of schools making technological purchases like computers.

North Mahaska simply uses this for the district’s bus fleet.

Moffit said that for four years the district has bought a bus a year with PPEL money coming in.

In the 2004-05 school year, this levy brought in $45,642. This isn’t enough to buy a bus, but Moffit said that overlap from past years allows the district to afford the vehicles even if that particular year’s funding from PPEL wouldn’t bring in enough to buy a vehicle of that magnitude.

In the 2006-07 school year, the district is planning on buying a suburban or van, said Moffit.

The school board has the power to vote in this levy to a maximum of 33 cents. However, the school board can raise it above that, but anything more would require approval through a public vote.

North Mahaska used to have that particular levy higher than the 33 cents, but the one cent option sales tax, also included in the school house fund, has really helped the district out.

“It has really helped us tremendously in keeping up some of the buildings and grounds issues that we need to do that probably wouldn’t have gotten done otherwise,” Moffit said.

He said that money could have been raised by the PPEL levy, but not near as much as the sales tax brought in.

Three-quarters of the money brought in with the sales tax is used for debt service with the other quarter going to other building and grounds projects. Though, through a public vote, the money can be used for other things.

Said Moffit, “We had enough building and grounds needs, at this point anyway, that we felt like we wanted to leave it that way.”

Also included in the schoolhouse fund is the PERL, or Public Education and Recreation Levy, which is used for playground building, said Moffit, but added that North Mahaska doesn’t have that particular levy.

Also included is the debt levy, which takes care of bond issues, which North Mahaska is currently utilizing, with the paying off of the building in the elementary wing of the school building.

Herald Assistant Editor Jared McNeill can be reached through e-mail at jmcneill@oskyherald.com