The Perry Community School District certified their budget for the upcoming school year just in time, as the School Board approved it at their meeting this week.

Since the state legislature has not yet determined what State Supplemental Aid will be for the upcoming school year, Perry decided to certify with a zero percent allowable growth.

Superintendent Lynn Ubben says the hope is that they will later be able to change that once a compromise is made at the Capitol.

“The Department of Management asks you to certify at your highest tax rate and that would be zero percent.  And then obviously if it comes in at 1.25, or two or three (percent), then the tax rate goes down.  You’re not going to want to raise your tax rate, you really want the opportunity to be able to lower your tax rate.”

Those in the Perry School District will pay $18.12 per $1,000 of valuation for the upcoming school year, which Ubben says is lower than it has been in the past considering Perry was in the top ten as far as highest tax rates in the state.

“Really the object for the Board is can we think is a good rate for our district, and not have so much fluctuation.  You know, would $18 per 1,000 be a good rate rather than having a $21 or a $22 (rate).  That’s really what we work towards, doing what’s best for kids and having a tax rate that’s a little more constant.”

Ubben says unfortunately, having to certify budgets without knowing what State Supplemental Aid is going to be is not new for districts as it has been more common than not over the last several years.