The bill that supplies school districts with the proposed three percent funding increase from Gov. Dennis Daugaard passed through Senate Appropriations unanimously on Thursday.

 

ASBSD supports the bill.

 

In addition to providing the three percent increase, Senate Bill 37 sets the property tax levies for a school district’s general fund for fiscal year 2015. The new levy levels accompany the bill to support the Cutler-Gabriel share of funding between the state and local effort, which is approximately 54 percent and 46 percent, respectively.

 

The commercial levy would be set at $9.10 per thousand dollars of valuation, down from $9.20, the agricultural levy would be set at $1.78 per thousand dollars of valuation, a decrease of 31 cents, and the owner occupied levy would be set at $4.25 per thousand dollars of valuation, a four cent decrease.

 

“I would just encourage everybody to take this step forward,” Sen. Billie Sutton said in support of the bill.

 

SB 37 now moves to the Senate floor for passage.

 

For updates on this bill and others, check the ASBSD Blog and Bill Tracker page.