District Treasurer Jerry Ellender said that the District is in the best financial shape its been in for over a decade but the concern now is declining State support for the District. The State provides over half the financial support for the District and the local taxpayers provide the rest. The State reduced their funding by 1% this year and will reduce it again by 2% next year.

The District balanced its budget in FY09 with a combination of cutting expenditures and increasing revenue by opening enrollment at all buildings. But the District's expenses continue to rise with inflation while the revenues are flat to declining. This means that even though we have money right now, it will run out within the next couple of years. (See Five-Year Forecast on Treasurer page for details)

The big concern now is what will happen in the next biennium State budget when the Federal stimulus dollars run out. The current year and next school years' state budgets were propped up by Federal stimulus dollars and there will be a big hole in the State budget for the next biennium without that Federal support. This could translate into school funding cuts in the State budget which will hurt our District since we rely on the State for half our support.

The local taxpayers have been doing their part in supporting the District, but now the State is reducing their share, and this places more needs for funding the District on the local taxpayer.

Carlisle Local Schools has an annual budget of about $15 million.The revenue sources for the District are approximately $8 million is State funding, $4.8 million in property taxes, $1.7 million in income taxes and the rest is made up of student fees and miscellaneous revenue. The district operates on the minimum legal property tax level for school districts of 20 mils, and a 1% School Income Tax plus the State Foundation funding.