You can expect ballots arriving in your mailboxes this Friday and Saturday for a proposed $1.6 million elementary school mill levy for School District 2. If passed, the levy will be directed towards operational costs for the kindergarten through eighth grades, according to Billings School District 2 Superintendent Greg Upham.
It would be applied to costs such as heat, lights, and pay for the staff. Taxpayers who own a $200,000 home would expect to pay roughly $19.60 a year, and $100,000 home owners would pay around $9.80.
“I would say this is the number one issue in our school district as we speak,” Upham stated, “even in conjunction with the COVID issues and all of those types of things. This is a very big levy for us.” It would be used to help fix a $4 million shortfall in the elementary school’s budget. When the levy was first introduced, it was stalled due to a conflict with Montana election law and Governor Steve Bullock’s declaration of emergency. Upham explained that the law required the declaration of emergency to be lifted before the district could put measures to the ballot. He stated that the state of emergency, “had to be lifted in order for us or the trustees to set the official date. This is unprecedented waters because…it’s built primarily for a different kind of disaster: a fire or flood, the types of things that would be lifted fairly quickly.” However, with schools having the option to return to in-classroom instruction on May 7th, progression was able to continue.
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