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Bill would let cooperative districts share levy for ice arenas; committee lays it over
Summary
Senate File 1679 seeks to allow cooperative school districts to combine levy authority to fund shared ice arena operations; proponents described the change as a technical fix to enable equitable cost-sharing among small and rural districts.
Senate File 1679, a bill to allow cooperative school districts to use levy dollars collectively to fund a shared ice arena, was presented to the Minnesota Senate Education Finance Committee and laid over for possible omnibus inclusion.
Sponsor Senator Rarick described the measure as a fix to an existing statutory barrier that prevents multiple cooperating districts from jointly levying for operational shortfalls on a shared rink. "If a school district has ice arena strictly for their district, currently, they can use levy dollars for the difference between what you spend and what you take in revenue. But if they are a cooperative, 2 or 3 school districts combined to have 1 rink, they cannot combine to do the levy," the sponsor said.
Dr. Michael Carey, superintendent of Cloquet Public Schools, testified in support and said Cloquet shares an arena with Esko and Carlton school districts; he described declining rural enrollment and the need to cooperate to maintain programming and facilities. Carey said the bill would "give us the authority ... to work effectively with our neighbors to make sure we can continue to support that programming." The committee laid the bill over; no roll-call vote on the measure occurred at the hearing.
