A quarterly financial report given to the Garfield Re-2 school district last week revealed an uneven balance between revenues and expenditures, but district staff said it is just a matter of tax collection timing before the two even out.

District Chief Financial Officer Jeff Blanford said tax collections are not coming in until later in spring. According to the books, Garfield Re-2 revenue through Dec. 31 is about $22.8 million while expenditures are $30.9 million.

“That is primarily a timing difference between the property tax collections and expenditures that we make,” Blandford said. “Particularly on the local property taxes, those get collected very late in the fiscal year, right around April or May.”

Once collections are made, Blanford said revenues and expenditures should even out. This is the first year the district is collecting revenue derived from an incremental property tax increase of 1 mill per year.

The board passed a proposal in December to increase the current mill levy 4.7 to 16.282 mills over the next decade.

Blanford said the district is going to spend February developing individual school budgets — not only their general fund budgeting, but their allocations out of grants.

Meanwhile, the district will come back toward the end of the year to make final budget adjustments.

Reporter Ray K. Erku can be reached at 612-423-5273 or rerku@citizentelegram.com.