School District Budgeting FAQs

The documents are available by July 1 each year on the Auditor of Public Accounts website and the Finance & Organizational Services/School District Budgeting website.

On or before September 30 of each calendar year.

With the Auditor of Public Accounts, the County Clerk and the Nebraska Department of Education.  For submission to NDE, districts must file their budget and accompanying documentation by uploading the documents in pdf through the LC-2 in the NDE Portal.  **Mailed or emailed budgets will not be accepted.**

• • School District Budget Form (Cover Page through Page 5)
  • Schedule A
  • Schedule B  (Schedule C is now incorporated into Schedule B)
  • Schedule D
  • Certification of Taxable Value
  • Proof of Publication of Notice of Budget Hearing and Budget Summary and Hearing Notice for Special Hearing to Set Property Taxes
  • Property Tax Resolution
  • Affidavit of Publication of Notice of Budget Hearing and Budget Summary
  • Election Ballot and Certified Election Returns for Levy Override
  • Budget Form LC-2 Lid Computation (LC-2)
  • Special Grant Fund List
  • Sample Ballot and Certification of Election Results for election to exceed expenditure lid
  • Board Minutes showing approval of District Budget

No, you only file the forms applicable to your school district. For example: school districts that have held a levy override need to file that election information. School districts that hold a special election to exceed the expenditure limitation would file that information. The Special Grant Fund List is only filed if the district has entered Special Grant Fund amounts.

Filing a budget gives the school district the authority to tax and the authority to spend money.

The School District Budget Form comes from the Auditor of Public Accounts. This is the form that provides the school district with the authority to tax and the authority to spend money. The information on the School District Budget Form reflects one year of actual receipts and expenditures (history), the actual/estimated receipts and expenditures for the current school fiscal year, and the proposed receipts and expenditures for the next school fiscal year.

A set of forms called Worksheet Pages are included in the School District Budget Form and is also available from the Auditor of Public Accounts website. These Pages reflect the detail of the receipts and expenditures. You are not required to file these Pages. The Pages are useful in developing a budget.  The Pages also provide information you can use (if you choose) at your Board Work Sessions.

There are numerous sources of information. Examples of a few sources are the internal financial records of the school district, the prior year’s budget, or the most recently available Annual Financial Report and School District Audit.

No, there is no minimum or maximum increase but if the total district levy is more than the previous year, additional information is required to be included in the Property Resolution. However, the $1.05 levy limit does place a maximum on the levy that a school can ask for in property tax for the combination of the General, Special Building and for non-bond expenditures in the Qualified Purpose Undertaking Fund.

No, there is no limit on the cash balance (cash on hand, investments and county treasurer’s balance) carried forward from one budget year to the next.
There is a limit on the budgeted cash reserves (General Fund Necessary Cash Reserve, Depreciation Fund Total Requirements and Employee Benefit Fund Necessary Cash Reserve). The budgeted cash reserves do not apply to the cash on hand deposit at a bank. The maximum dollar amount of this limit is calculated on the LC-2.

This is the Schedule that reports the dollar amount of additional exclusions to the expenditure limitation allowing a district to exceed their certified budget authority. The total of these additional expenditure exclusions is reported on the LC-2. These additional exclusions include:

• • Repairs to Infrastructure Damaged by a Natural Disaster
  • Judgments Not Covered by Liability Insurance
  • Distance Education Courses
  • Voluntary Termination Agreements
  • Retirement Contribution Increase
  • Native American Impact Aid

This Schedule reports the exclusions to the levy limitation and determines if the district is within the statutory maximum levy.  The funds under the levy limitation and the exclusions to the levy limitation are:

• • General Fund: Voluntary termination agreements, judgments not paid by liability insurance, only lease-purchase contracts approved between July 1, 1997 and July 1, 1998, and bond principal and interest.
    • Does not include the repayment of principal, premium, or interest on general obligation funds issued for insurance premium costs and the payment of all costs and expenses associated with membership in a risk management pool that are effective after April 2, 2008.
  • Bond Fund: Bond principal and interest.
    • Does not include the repayment of principal, premium, or interest on general obligation funds issued for insurance premium costs and the payment of all costs and expenses associated with membership in a risk management pool that are effective after April 2, 2008.
  • Special Building Fund: Projects commenced prior to April 1, 1996, only lease-purchase contracts approved between July 1, 1997 and July 1, 1998.
  • Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking Fund: Bond principal and interest.

This Schedule reports detailed contract costs for the district superintendent.

The statutory maximum levy is $1.05 plus exclusions. Exclusions are specific amounts that are outside of the levy limitation.  The sum of the levies in each taxing fund (excluding principal and interest in the Bond Fund and Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking Fund) may not exceed $1.05 plus exclusions.

There are exclusions to the maximum levy limitation called levy exclusions that allow a school to levy more than the maximum levy of $1.05. These exclusions are:

• • Voluntary Termination Agreements
  • Special Building Fund Projects Started prior to April 1, 1996
  • Judgments Not Covered by Liability Insurance
  • Lease-Purchase Contracts (Approved Prior to July 1, 1998)
  • Bonded Indebtedness Approved According to Law and Secured by a Levy on Property.

When these exclusions are used, the total levy may be greater than $1.05. A local system may also have held an election to exceed the levy limitation. The ballot from the election will state the maximum levy and the duration of the levy.

School districts have a maximum of 14¢ or 17.5¢ with a vote of their patrons.  These maximum levies fall under the $1.05 statutory maximum levy.

School districts have a maximum of 3¢ for projects initiated after April 19, 2016. Projects in place prior to that date can have a levy up to 5.2¢. This levy is part of the $1.05 statutory maximum levy, unless the 3¢ is levied to retire bond principal and interest.

This is the form received from the county assessor on or before August 20 that reports the assessed value of the school district. If you have valuation in more than one county, each county assessor will send a Certification. A Certification of Taxable Value for School District Bonds will be received by school districts that have bonded indebtedness. This is the valuation that is taxed to repay the bonded indebtedness.  If a district had Class I districts in the past, the county may send a separate Bond Fund Valuation Certification which may be different from the General Fund and Special Building Fund valuation.  The different valuations should be entered on Schedule B.

The Notice must be published four days in advance of the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the district.  The day of the hearing is not included in the four day count.

Yes. The Auditor of Public Accounts provides the day the notice is published is included in the four day count, but the day of the hearing is not included in the count of four days.  Per LB 148 (2020 Legislature), beginning with the 2021/22 school year, budget hearings must allow enough time for all testimony to be heard during the hearing.  During the budget hearing, the following must be provided to the public:

• • At least three copies of the proposed budget
  • A summary of key provisions of the proposed budget and a comparison of the prior year budget to the proposed budget

A quorum of the board is necessary to hold this public hearing.

An affirmative vote of a majority of the board members in attendance.

No. The published agenda for a scheduled board meeting should include an item for the board to vote to adopt the Budget. The board meeting may be scheduled after the hearing is adjourned, or the board meeting may be scheduled on another day.

A copy of the ballot and the results of the election should be attached to the School District Budget Form.  Levy override information is also collected on the LC-2.

School districts will hold two hearings: (1) A hearing on the proposed budget; and (2) A hearing on the property tax request.  If the budget is amended later in the year, the district will also need to hold a hearing to amend the budget.

There are a few ways to schedule the hearings:

• • Budget Hearing and the Tax Request Hearing held consecutively on same day with the Board Meeting to act on both the budget and the tax request immediately following.
  • Budget and Tax Request Hearings held on different days.  The Board meeting to act on the each hearing immediately following.
  • Budget and Tax Request Hearings held on different days.  The Board Meeting to act on each are held on a different day.

Local policy may determine how these hearings are held.

Most importantly, each hearing must allow adequate time for the public to provide input after the hearing information is provided and before the hearing is closed [§13-506(1)].  If the Budget and Tax Request Hearings are scheduled consecutively for the same day with the board meeting to follow, we recommend the Tax Request Hearing Notice not include a specific time to start.   We recommend the language say “The Tax Request Hearing will begin at the conclusion of the Budget Hearing.”

Yes, if the election to exceed to override the levy limitation and the election to exceed the expenditure limitation are held at the same time.

This form is commonly referred to as the LC-2. The LC-2 is an online collection on the NDE Portal that calculates whether or not the school district has exceeded the expenditure limitation or the allowable reserve limitation.

The LC-2 online system through the NDE Portal will display an error message if the school district has exceeded the expenditure limitation or the allowable reserve limitation – the LC-2 cannot be submitted with an error message.  Also, if there is an error in the Levy override information, that information must be corrected before the LC-2 can be submitted.

The school district would need to reduce the total General Fund Budget of Disbursements and Transfers to stay within the expenditure limitation; and the school district would need to reduce one of the components of the Allowable Reserves to stay within the allowable reserve limitation.

Each year the State Board of Education approves a list of grants that are classified as Special Grant Funds.  Special Grant Funds are outside of the expenditure limitation. The Special Grant Fund List is completed through the LC-2 online system by reporting the amount of monies expected to be received from any of the grants listed.