Did you know that Minnesota elected leaders decided in 2023 that school district boards can bypass their residents and renew local school levies (taxes)? During the legislature’s 2025 special session, a few more tweaks to the law were made and retroactively applied to school board resolutions adopted on or after June 16, 2024.
There are a few ground rules that a school board has to follow in order to renew an expiring referendum, and it can only be renewed once in this manner, but there is concern the provision encourages circumventing voters and the accountability they provide. If a new referendum is passed, the school board’s authority to renew it resets. Districts also don’t need to engage in a renewal campaign to explain to homeowners why the dollars are needed for double the time period and what they would be going toward.
According to the St. Anthony-New Brighton district, whose school board renewed their operating levy in 2024 under this provision, not needing to go to the taxpayers for approval and “run a costly campaign” “save[d] the district and taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.” The Rochester school district also took advantage of the new law to extend its referendum in 2024, along with some 30 or so other districts by October of that year, according to the Minnesota Department of Education and reported by KTTC.
More recently, in June, the Lakeville school district’s board used its one-time renewal on an operating levy set to expire this year and will also hold a special election in November for voters to consider renewing an expiring capital projects levy.
According to Education Minnesota, the state teachers’ union, an “unprecedented number of districts are considering levy referendums” this fall, reports KSTP. Education Minnesota president Monica Byron says “many districts are dealing with a perfect storm of inflation, federal funding cuts and the expiration of COVID relief funds.”
“Our districts have already made as many cuts as possible,” Byron continues, so “going to the voters is a last-resort option.”
Over the last 10 years (FY 2014 to FY 2024), the statewide formula allowance, which is the dollar amount per pupil unit used to calculate each district’s basic general education revenue, increased 34.6 percent, exceeding inflation by 2.1 percent. But those aren’t the only revenue dollars a district receives. Combined revenue per adjusted pupil unit increased 55.1 percent over that time period, exceeding inflation by 22.6 percent (2.26 percent per year).
Cue the Circle of Education Funding!