Indiana property tax caps are posing challenges to the Gary Community School Corporation's 2024 budget. Manager Dr. Michael Raisor adopted a budget totaling more than $74 million Monday. It includes an education fund of about $32.5 million and a referendum fund of about $10.3 million.
The school district is asking to collect almost $30.7 million dollars in property taxes for its operations fund, over $11 million more than it plans to spend out of that fund. But Daniel Dalton with municipal advisor Cender Dalton expects much of that revenue to be lost to the tax cap.
"That $30 million ask in the operations fund is highly impacted by local circuit breakers, so we're actually anticipating 10 percent of that actually being received as real property taxes," Dalton explained.
Meanwhile, the debt service fund had been trimmed by about $3.5 million since the initial proposal.
Resident Tracy Coleman felt that the community still hasn't seen a clear picture of the school corporation's finances. "I'm concerned with the accuracy of the budget, and therefore, I have to object to the approval," Coleman said.
Still, Dalton said the adopted budget is what the district believes is most sustainable, following discussions with the advisory school board and state officials. Raisor has proposed closing the school corporation's two middle schools, to help control costs going forward.