The Voted and Board Local Levy Programs are state-supported property tax guarantee programs. In order to qualify for funding appropriated by the State, a school district must levy a tax on property within the school district. If the property tax generates less revenue per WPU than the amount guaranteed by the state, the district will receive an allocation from the state for the difference.
These programs work to further equalize property tax collections similar to the equalization that occurs in the Basic School Program. The state provides additional funding to assist school districts that generate less property tax revenue for the same property tax rate than other districts. Only those school districts that don't meet the minimum revenue per WPU receive an allocation of state funding.
A portion of the Board Local Levy Program is dedicated to provide a local match for the K-3 Reading Improvement Program. School districts may receive state funding for the K-3 Reading Improvement Program if they match the state allocation with property tax revenue (or some other local revenue source). All school districts participate in this program.
During the 2015 General Session, the Legislature appropriated for Fiscal Year 2016, $523,581,500 from all sources for Voted and Board Local Levy Programs. This is a 19.7 percent increase from Fiscal Year 2015 revised estimated amounts from all sources. The total includes $99,519,400 from the General/Education Funds, an increase of 30.1 percent from revised Fiscal Year 2015 estimates.
In addition to statewide compensation and internal service fund cost increases, the following appropriation adjustments were made during the 2015 General Session:
During the 2011 General Session, the Legislature consolidated several property tax levies through the passages of House Bill 301. The name of the Voted Local Levy changed from the Voted Leeway, but the program and revenue source remained the same. For the Board Local Levy, the legislation consolidated several property tax rates into one:
The Board Local Levy is a combination of the previous property tax levies, namely:
- Board Leeway Levy;
- K-3 Reading Levy;
- Public Law Levy;
- Special Transportation Levy;
- Recreation Levy;
- Utah Government Immunity Levy; and
- 10% Additional Basic Levy.
The programs are funded primarly with local property tax revenues. State revenue, from the Education Fund, supports the guarantee portion of the program. The cost of the state guarantees varies each year based on the guarantee rate set by the Legislature and the value of local property in the school districts.
In FY 2015, local school districts generated approximately $431.9 million in local revenues to support the Voted and Board Local Levy programs. The Legislature provided approximately $76.5 million ongoing to fund the state guarantee rate in the same year.
Included in the local revenue total is approximately $15 million to provide the local match to the K-3 Reading Improvement program. The Legislature appropriated $15 million from the Education Fund to support the program. Please see the K-3 Reading Improvement Program in the Related to Basic School Program for more information.
During the 2013 General Session, the Legislature passed House Bill 49 which directs the State Board of Education to "use a voted and board local levy funding balance in the prior fiscal year to increase the value of the state guarantee per weighted pupil unit in the current fiscal year." At the close of FY 2014, the Voted and Board Local Levy programs had a combined balance of approximately $5.5 million. This amount will be distributed to participating school districts during FY 2015 and is reflected in the budget detail table below.
COBI contains unaudited data as presented to the Legislature by state agencies at the time of publication. For audited financial data see the State of Utah's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.