The Nauvoo-Colusa School District is living up to the saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."
The district has been trying to increase its education fund property tax rate ($2.00) for years, but attempts to bring in more money for daily operations have failed on multiple occasions.
That did not stop the Nauvoo-Colusa School Board from trying again by placing a referendum on the Tuesday, March 18 primary ballot that calls for the rate to be boosted to $2.55.
Superintendent Kent Young says that would generate an extra $288,000.
He says that is critical to the district as Nauvoo-Colusa is having trouble balancing its budget at the time due to a loss in state funding and added expenses.
"In 2008, we got around $1-million from the state," says Young, "(and because of a change in formula), last year we received about $200,000."
Young is more confident that this ballot referendum will succeed, after previous failures, because it is being led by a citizens committee as opposed to the school board.
He says Nauvoo-Colusa is getting by because it borrowed money to pay bills, which cannot continue for the district to remain solvant.
Young says the school board has discussed dissolving the district if additional revenue is not found.
He says the panel would have the ability to reduce the education fund property tax rate once the district is able to build up its reserves.
The same question failed by a more than two-to-one margin last April.
