K-M superintendent testifies before State Education Finance Committee

Mark Matuska, Kasson-Mantorville Public Schools superintendent, testified last week at the Minnesota State Education Finance Committee as an avid supporter of “schools for equity in education” for more than a decade, according to a copy of his testimony supplied to the DCI.

He first thanked those who were involved with the Ag Bond Credit or what is called by educators the “Ag to School” funding that was provided to our Minnesota farmers a few years back. That reduction in property taxes for our local farmers on their tillable acres has been well received and will be remembered and appreciated by them for many years to come, he said.

Matuska went on and said he is honored to support similar legislation that will also assist many of our local taxpayers. Senate File 2552 provides an increase in the debt service equalization aid that will “dramatically reduce the property tax increases for our local businesses, the homes and one acre for our farming families, in addition to our household residents living throughout Minnesota, he said. “Please know this does not replace the Ag Bond Credit.”

School districts like Byron, Morehead, Pine Island, Stewartville, Farmington and St. Michael are all growing, Matuska noted during his remarks, yet have extremely low property wealth mainly due to a lack of industry. Nearly all of those aforementioned districts have also either recently renovated or built new facilities that have increased their debt service payments.

“Historically, we have had over 11 percent of our debt service equalized by the state, yet that figure has dipped below the 3 percent mark and has been holding at that rate for the last five years,” he testified to the Senate on March 14.

“Senate File 2552 gets it right,” he said. “As written, the cost of this increase in debt service equalization aid is just over $40 million, and the number of districts that would qualify would increase. For those school districts who already qualify, they would also see an increase in aid and a smaller tax burden on their citizens.”

The bill simplifies the process by creating a single Tier of Equalization at 100 percent of the statewide average of net tax capacity. In addition, it sets the threshold for state aid eligibility at 10 percent instead of at 15.74 percent, Matuska reported.

“For a district like Kasson-Mantorville, the increased state aid would result in a reduction of taxes for our constituents of nearly $1 million dollars annually,” he said. “Keep in mind, these are not additional dollars for schools, yet they are a significant reduction in taxes for our families, our farmers and for our local businesses.

“As our communities continue to grow, new school buildings will always need to be built,” he went on. “For those schools with higher property tax wealth, the impact on taxpayers is significantly lower than all of the districts I mentioned earlier that have extremely low property tax wealth.”

For this reason, Matuska said, he asked members to support Senate File 2552. He concluded by thanking the Senate Education Finance Committee for their support of this critical legislation.