Elk River district seeks more state money

The Elk River school district has a special plea for the Minnesota Legislature: Give us more money because we've grown so fast.

The district, through legislators representing the area, is angling for another $6 million to $7 million a year over the next 15 years.

It's not the typical push districts make to get more funding. Mostly, districts need money because they're losing students and the state aid that comes with them, not gaining them.

In Elk River's case, however, booming student growth in the early part of the decade fueled a need for more space, much more space. That led to bond referendums in which voters approved more than $160 million to build new schools and renovate existing ones. As a result, the district now has $180 million in debt, counting both principal and interest.

The district is making payments of about $20 million yearly on that debt, said Superintendent Mark Bezek.

Couple that with the likelihood that no additional operating aid will be coming from the Legislature this year and the possibility that funding will be cut or state payments to schools further deferred, and it sets the stage for a dire financial situation down the road.

Bezek said the district had to make $6 million in cuts to this year's budget. While the situation isn't as bad for next year, it's the ensuing years that have officials worried.

Bezek said more than half of the district's property tax revenue goes toward paying off the debt. That, he said, also makes it tough to go back to the voters.

The 15-year request covers the remaining bond payment schedule.

More money for the district will be a hard sell at the Capitol in a year when new money for schools is as hard to find as an abacus in a math class.

"It's a tough year," Bezek said. "We've been after this kind of relief for the last couple of sessions. You just have to keep hammering away."

Elk River is not the only school district looking to get dribs and drabs of money when times are so lean. Bills have been introduced that would remove the limit on how much money districts can raise via tax levy referendums. There has also been talk that there could be proposals to increase the amount of property taxes districts may levy without having to go to the voters.