Montanans in May voted down tax increases to pay for public schools at rates not seen in at least 25 years, according to school board administrators.
Montana School Boards Association CEO Lance Melton says preliminary numbers show passage rates of 54% for elementary school general fund levies and 61% for high school levies. He says that’s sharply lower than the recent average passage rate, which has hovered around 80%.
“I just don’t think there’s anybody who can say, ‘Well, you know, you win some, you lose some, and that’s all OK,’” Melton said in a phone interview. “I just think that districts are really going to struggle.”
Melton says fewer districts pursued levies at all this year, many because they felt they had slim chances of passing after residential property tax bills spiked in many locations statewide last fall.
“This was not about, ‘Hey, can we have a few little extras?’ It was more about, ‘Hey, can we continue to provide the programs and services our community has come to rely upon?’” Melton said.
Voters in some of Montana’s largest districts failed multiple levies. Five went down in Helena Public Schools, where the district superintendent says “major budget reductions” are coming.
In Lolo, a K-8 district just south of Missoula, students and teachers just moved into a brand-new school last fall. Voters approved a multi-million-dollar bond for the project in 2020. This year, superintendent Dale Olinger says a general operating levy for $22,000 failed by a two-to-one margin.
“That doesn’t feel like a huge ask,” Olinger said. “We’re not asking for $75 per year or $250 per year, it’s $12 for your average residential home, and it still failed by a pretty significant margin, which is disheartening.”
Olinger says the community supports the district, but he believes voters are experiencing what he calls “tax fatigue.”
Montana lawmakers next year will take a comprehensive look at the state’s funding formula for schools for the first time in a decade.
