Citizens will be receiving their tax bills late, but will still have 30 days to pay without penalty and also will not see an increase this year.

That’s because they won’t be on the hook for this year’s portion of a lawsuit settlement made last year by Kingfisher Public Schools.

Those points were made Friday morning at the end of a special meeting of the Kingfisher County Excise Board.

The meeting was called in order for the excise board to act on the Kingfi sher Public Schools’ estimate of needs, which was the topic of conversation at multiple previous meetings of the board.

After the excise board voted in late September to amend the school district’s proposed estimate of needs from $16.2 million to $14.2 million, it received a letter from State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd stating “there are numerous irregularities regarding the comparison of the total general fund levy collection to the line-item budgeted expenditures.”

In order for the state auditor’s office to approve the school’s budget, Byrd wrote, “the budget must be completed accurately with expenditure line items to reflect the approved general fund levy by the Kingfisher County Excise Board.”

In Friday’s meeting, local CPA John Storm, who advises the excise board, said the error was how the amendments were physically made to the budget that was submitted to the state for approval.

The proper changes were made by the school district and presented back to the excise board, which caused some concern by the two members present, Jimmy Berkenbile and Jim Wittrock.

Storm did his best to alleviate the concerns.

“He’s (KPS Interim Superintendent Andy Evans) got a budget today that is exactly what your intent was the last time,” Storm said. “It’s exactly the same numbers that we had cut and paste before.”

Eventually both Berkenbile and Wittrock voted to approve the budget. Excise board member Michelle Miller was absent from the special meeting.

In the end, the budget reflected that it would be the school district - not taxpayers within Kingfisher’s school district boundaries - that would foot the bill for this year’s portion of a $5 million civil lawsuit settlement with Mason Mecklenburg.

Brian Long, among the citizens at Friday’s meeting, asked for clarification after the vote.

“As the budget is approved, is it still the intent or not that an increase in property taxes will occur to help pay for the settlement?” asked Long.

He was told, no, there would be no increase in ad valorem taxes from the settlement agreement reflected in the school’s budget.

In fact, noted County Assessor Carrie Turner, taxes will actually be less than last year.

“Our levy will be 84.74, which is a little bit less than last year,” she said, noting last year’s levy was 85.19.

Turner told those in attendance that once the budget was signed by all the necessary people, it would be turned into the proper state officials. Once that happened, there would be a 15-day protest period that is mandated.

Once the protest period ended, Turner said she could complete the tax roll and turn them over to County Treasurer Robin Rother in order for her to generate the tax bills and get them sent to taxpayers.

Rother said once they were sent, taxpayers would have 30 days to pay the bills without penalty, meaning they wouldn’t be due at the normal time since the tax bills will be sent more than a month later than normal.

As for KPS, Evans said the district will continue to work through the situation. He did ask that the excise board provide documentation along with the proposed budget to the state that notes it was the excise board, not the school district, that made the change in millages.

“It’s not us trying to be difficult,” he said. “It’s us trying to follow the law.”

Humphries said he would prepare that document.

When the estimate of needs was originally amended by the excise board, Evans called the potential budget situation “untenable,” especially if it affected the state aid the district was able to receive.

Evans said Friday that some of those concerns have been lessened, though he still wasn’t sure of the extent.

He’s worked with the attorneys at the State Board of Education and said he’s received help in navigating the murky waters from the likes of Secretary of Education Nellie Sanders, State Sen. Darcy Jech and State Rep. Mike Dobrinski.

Despite having the millages reduced by the excise board, Evans said the hit the district takes may be lessened by the fact citizens here voted in February 2002 to make the millages permanent as opposed to voting on them annually.

“We were able to ascertain through those discussions that the tax millages had been set permanently,” Evans said about his discussions with OSDE attorneys. “That allowed the district to fulfill its duty to try to have 36 mills.”

That means the potential for state aid to cushion some of the blow of the reduced budget.

“We’re still hopeful and prayerful,” said Evans, who said mid-year staff reductions would have to be considered. “It’s been a long, twisted road to get here today.”

Regardless, Evans said the KPS school board will work at the next meeting “to adjust our budget down.”

He said the board will do so in order to reflect the $14.2 million that is currently approved.

“That’s going to cause some issues,” he said. “We’re going to have to move some encumbrances out and it’s going to be pretty harsh, but that’s the life that we have, so we’re going to deal with that.”