Medical Lake School District recently got all caught up with an important part of its funding with the receipt of the last payment of Federal Impact Aid.
The money, about $1.7 million, comes in dribs and drabs and apparently in no dependable schedule. It makes up about 6 percent of the district’s budget of approximately $26 million.
According to the official source, Impact Aid is designed to assist local school districts that have lost property tax revenue. This can be due to the presence of tax-exempte federal property, or that have experienced increased expenditures due to the enrollment of federally connected children, including children living on Indian lands. The Lanham Act in 1940 provided Impact Aid in lieu of taxes for districts with military bases within their boundaries.
Hence, with Fairchild Air Force Base in the distance to the north of Medical Lake, the school system there finds itself responsible for not only educating its students — both on and off base — but operations of Michael Anderson Elementary inside the fences.
District finance director Chad Moss estimates the number of military-connected students in the school system at between 800-900, approaching half the total district enrollment.
“We rely on it to function and survive,” Moss said.
The base does not pay property taxes to support schools so the federalpdel government attempts to fill the gap. “Typically, it’s been flexible dollars for us,” Moss said.
It helps keep levies at a lower rate because Medical Lake does not have a large tax base because of the numerous state institution inside its city limits.
Indian reservations have a different factor for their payment. “Up north in Welpinit, they receive a pretty good chunk of Impact Aid,” Moss said.
The Clover Park School District serving Joint Base McCord, is also a recipient, as are schools involved with naval bases like Bremerton and Oak Harbor.
As for a slew of recent payments, that is just getting things caught up.
“We got one in August, another one in September and another one in early November,” Moss said. Before that, other payments were received last fall and in February. The Medical Lake School District’s fiscal year is Sept. 1 through Aug. 31.
The timeliness is something district officials had not seen before and it will help with year-end cashflow for a variety of expenditures. Impact Aid dollars “even the playing field,” Moss said.
Impact Aid is always under scrutiny.
A variety of organizations including The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, takes issue with distribution of public funds to recover monies the school district is not able to collect because serving property tax-exempt constituents.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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