School taxes in the Ely district will decline significantly - to the tune of just over 10 percent in 2026.
On Monday, school board members approved a property tax levy of $2,288,878.
That’s down 10.36 percent from the 2025 levy of $2,553,549.
Information provided at the board session, which also included the district’s annual Truth in Taxation hearing, shed light on the changes.
During the taxation hearing, school finance manager Jordan Huntbatch guided board members through a presentation that included a run of the levy numbers for both 2025 and 2026.
An assortment of factors determines school taxes in Minnesota, including student enrollment, property values, levies approved by local voters, and state equalization rates.
Ely’s current K-12 student population is behind where it was a year ago, and overall enrollment is down 17 percent since the 2017-18 school year.
Property tax levies set in the fall of 2025 are collected in 2026 and fund operations in the 2026-27 school year.
Ely’s 2026 levy is broken down in six areas, with some components encompassing all properties in the district and some excluding seasonal- recreational properties.
Overall school taxes are down despite voter approval of a $350,000 capital project levy in 2024.
At the time, the levy was touted as a means to provide additional revenue for technology, transportation and curriculum expenses and it covers all properties in the district.
While approval led to an increase in the 2025 levy, other factors in other components of the total levy have resulted in the 10.36 percent decrease for 2026.
The district’s general levies, which factor school enrollment, have gone down with the exception of the capital project levy.
One of the larger components of the 2026 levy is $554,472 for debt service, but that too is about $104,000 less than in 2025 Much of the debt service is related to bond payments on the district’s $20 million- plus renovation project that included the construc- tion of a new building that houses a gymnasium, cafeteria/ commons, office space, media center, music and industrial education classrooms and a single secure entry to the buildings.
Debt service and the school building project were the primary reason the levy climbed by 32 percent from 2020 to 2021, a hike that was the direct result from voter approval of a $10 million bond for the renovation and construction project.
School levies are predominantly formula-driven, with student enrollment and district property wealth among the key factors.
Ely School District property taxes have been largely stagnant the last several years, with the levy topping out at $1.9 million in 2016 but dipping to about $1.65 million the next two years before moving back up to $1,797,064 in 2020, and then climbing to as high as $2.55 million in 2025 as a result of the referendum and building project, and the capital project levy.
The presentation this week also included data showing how the tax levy figures into the district’s overall budget.
The levy amounts to about 23 percent of the district’s revenue budget.
In the general fund, local sources provide 23.45 percent of the district’s revenue and state sources compile the largest single block of revenue - at 70.3 percent or $6,105,542.
With overall spending of $8,496,410 budgeted for 2026 the bulk of that is devoted to wages and benefits, which reach $6,472,344 - a total of 76.1 percent.
Purchased services ($1,245,500), supplies and materials ($581,123), capital expenditures ($291,588) and other ($81,847) spending round out the general fund budget.
