Hedley ISD holds line on tax rate

The Hedley ISD Board of Trustees adopted a $1.57 million budget and held the line on taxes when they met last Monday, August 29.

Superintendent Eric Hough said the budget for fiscal year 2011-2012 is about four percent less than last year and deals with the loss of about $70,000 in state funds.
“We’ll be using substitutes less and have made some personnel changes – replaced a full time position with a part time, for example – and doing everything we can to offset the losses,” Hough said.

A motion to raise the school’s tax rate by one cent to $1.07 failed on a 3-3 vote, Hough said. Trustees then voted unanimously to maintain the current tax rate of $1.10 with $1.04 for maintenance and operations and a debt rate of $0.06.
Hough said enrollment is currently at 125 students, which is down ten from the high point last year.

“We’ve been graduating larger classes than what is coming into the lower grades,” Hough said. “I think it just fluctuates, and we’re in a down time right now.”