Montana Code Annotated
Part 1. School Buses and Transportation
20-10-144. Computation of revenue and net tax levy requirements for district transportation fund budget

20-10-144. Computation of revenue and net tax levy requirements for district transportation fund budget. Before the second Monday of August, the county superintendent shall compute the revenue available to finance the transportation fund budget of each district. The county superintendent shall compute the revenue for each district on the following basis:
(1) The "schedule amount" of the budget expenditures that is derived from the rate schedules in 20-10-141 and 20-10-142 must be determined by adding the following amounts:
(a) the sum of the maximum reimbursable expenditures for all approved school bus routes maintained by the district (to determine the maximum reimbursable expenditure, multiply the applicable rate for each bus mile by the total number of miles to be traveled during the ensuing school fiscal year on each bus route approved by the county transportation committee and maintained by the district); plus
(b) the total of all individual transportation per diem reimbursement rates for the district as determined from the contracts submitted by the district multiplied by the number of pupil-instruction days scheduled for the ensuing school attendance year; plus
(c) any estimated costs for supervised home study or supervised correspondence study for the ensuing school fiscal year; plus
(d) the amount budgeted in the budget for the contingency amount permitted in 20-10-143, except if the amount exceeds 10% of the total of subsections (1)(a), (1)(b), and (1)(c) or $100, whichever is larger, the contingency amount on the budget must be reduced to the limitation amount and used in this determination of the schedule amount; plus
(e) any estimated costs for transporting a child out of district when the child has mandatory approval to attend school in a district outside the district of residence.
(2) (a) The schedule amount determined in subsection (1) or the total transportation fund budget, whichever is smaller, is divided by 2 and is used to determine the available state and county revenue to be budgeted on the following basis:
(i) one-half is the budgeted state transportation reimbursement; and
(ii) one-half is the budgeted county transportation fund reimbursement and must be financed in the manner provided in 20-10-146.
(b) When the district has a sufficient amount of fund balance for reappropriation and other sources of district revenue, as determined in subsection (3), to reduce the total district obligation for financing to zero, any remaining amount of district revenue and fund balance reappropriated must be used to reduce the county financing obligation in subsection (2)(a)(ii) and, if the county financing obligations are reduced to zero, to reduce the state financial obligation in subsection (2)(a)(i).
(c) The county revenue requirement for a joint district, after the application of any district money under subsection (2)(b), must be prorated to each county incorporated by the joint district in the same proportion as the ANB of the joint district is distributed by pupil residence in each county.
(3) The total of the money available for the reduction of property tax on the district for the transportation fund must be determined by totaling:
(a) anticipated federal money received under the provisions of 20 U.S.C. 7701, et seq., or other anticipated federal money received in lieu of that federal act;
(b) anticipated payments from other districts for providing school bus transportation services for the district;
(c) anticipated payments from a parent or guardian for providing school bus transportation services for a child;
(d) anticipated or reappropriated interest to be earned by the investment of transportation fund cash in accordance with the provisions of 20-9-213(4);
(e) anticipated revenue from coal gross proceeds under 15-23-703;
(f) anticipated oil and natural gas production taxes;
(g) anticipated transportation payments for out-of-district pupils under the provisions of 20-5-320 through 20-5-324;
(h) any other revenue anticipated by the trustees to be earned during the ensuing school fiscal year that may be used to finance the transportation fund; and
(i) any fund balance available for reappropriation as determined by subtracting the amount of the end-of-the-year fund balance earmarked as the transportation fund operating reserve for the ensuing school fiscal year by the trustees from the end-of-the-year fund balance in the transportation fund. The operating reserve may not be more than 20% of the final transportation fund budget for the ensuing school fiscal year and is for the purpose of paying transportation fund warrants issued by the district under the final transportation fund budget.
(4) The district levy requirement for each district's transportation fund must be computed by:
(a) subtracting the schedule amount calculated in subsection (1) from the total preliminary transportation budget amount; and
(b) subtracting the amount of money available to reduce the property tax on the district, as determined in subsection (3), from the amount determined in subsection (4)(a).
(5) The transportation fund levy requirements determined in subsection (4) for each district must be reported to the county commissioners on or before the later of the first Tuesday in September or within 30 calendar days after receiving certified taxable values by the county superintendent as the transportation fund levy requirements for the district, and the levy must be made by the county commissioners in accordance with 20-9-142.
History: En. 75-7021 by Sec. 298, Ch. 5, L. 1971; R.C.M. 1947, 75-7021; amd. Sec. 6, Ch. 699, L. 1983; amd. Sec. 17, Ch. 695, L. 1985; amd. Sec. 20, Ch. 611, L. 1987; amd. Sec. 24, Ch. 655, L. 1987; amd. Sec. 7, Ch. 35, L. 1989; amd. Sec. 87, Ch. 11, Sp. L. June 1989; amd. Sec. 11, Ch. 267, L. 1991; amd. Sec. 13, Ch. 711, L. 1991; amd. Sec. 45, Ch. 767, L. 1991; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 9, Sp. L. July 1992; amd. Sec. 12, Ch. 133, L. 1993; amd. Sec. 17, Ch. 563, L. 1993; amd. Sec. 19, Ch. 9, Sp. L. November 1993; amd. Sec. 45, Ch. 451, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 7, Ch. 580, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 32, Ch. 22, L. 1997; amd. Sec. 13, Ch. 211, L. 1997; amd. Sec. 14, Ch. 496, L. 1997; amd. Sec. 19, Ch. 515, L. 1999; amd. Sec. 122, Ch. 574, L. 2001; amd. Sec. 29, Ch. 130, L. 2005; amd. Sec. 9, Ch. 255, L. 2005; amd. Sec. 22, Ch. 152, L. 2011; amd. Sec. 4, Ch. 46, L. 2013; amd. Sec. 6, Ch. 2, Sp. L. November 2017.