MREA released a map today that shows the taxpayer effort to raise the average operating revenue to $1,000 per pupil (RMCPU) in Minnesota. At a $1,000 voter approve operating referendum revenue per pupil, two-thirds of school districts’ taxpayers in the state are in the highest level of tax effort required. Nearly all of those districts are in rural Minnesota. A thumbnail is below. View the interactive map by clicking here.
The 8 districts with the lowest tax effort:
- Average $150 tax effort on $150,000 home to raise $1,000 per pupil referendum
- Average $1,463 in referendum per resident pupil
The 232 districts with the highest tax effort:
- Average $371 tax effort on $150,000 home to raise $1,000 per pupil referendum: 250% of the lowest tax effort school districts
- Average $845 in referendum per resident pupil: 58% of the lowest tax effort districts.
- Average referendum for FY ’13 is $1,035 per ADM (Average Daily Membership)
The levels of tax effort in this map are defined as 20 percent of the variation in tax effort $’s required to raise $1,000 in referendum regardless of the number of districts in each effort quintile.
Minnesota equalizes the up to $1,358 (26% of $5,224—the Basic Formula) of referendum revenue per resident pupils in two tiers of districts’ referendum market value (RMV) per pupil: $476,000 and $270,000 called factors. The range in effort up to a $1,000 referendum can be reduced by increasing theses equalizing factors.
More Maps
MREA also released a map representing an increase to the current cap of $1,845. View the map and summary of the $1,845 per pupil by clicking here.