Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

An operating levy is a voter-approved funding source that supports the day-to-day components of education, including academics, student services, activities, and the teachers and staff who make it all possible.

It's a new Minnesota program that allows school districts like Perham-Dent — where seasonal recreation properties such as cabins and vacation homes make up more than 15% of the property tax base — to receive state aid covering up to 50% of a voter-approved operating levy.

This November, the district is asking voters to consider an operating levy to fund the academics, athletics and programs we take pride in, and to take advantage of a new Minnesota program that brings state dollars home while easing the burden on local taxpayers.

Perham-Dent recently came out of a period of serious financial strain — a state designation called Statutory Operating Debt — and our fund balance is still negative today. We've managed that through careful budgeting and tough choices, not by asking voters for more, for a long time.

But now, Minnesota created a brand-new program: the state will now match 50% of a voter-approved operating levy — dollars that simply weren't available to us before.

This is an opportunity that doesn’t come around often, and it won’t be around forever. This is the right moment to put our district on more stable financial footing, using a plan that leans on state support instead of placing the full cost on local residents.

If approved by voters, Perham-Dent's operating levy would go toward the day-to-day costs of running the district: classroom instruction, student services, activities and the teachers and staff who deliver them. The levy is projected to generate $1,135 per student, or about $745,965 in new annual revenue, each year for the next 10 years, providing stable, long-term support for academics and extracurricular programs rather than a one-time infusion.

Because the school board has committed to reducing other local levies, most residents will see an overall decrease in their school-related property taxes. For a home valued at $400,000, the estimated tax impact is a decrease of about $13 per year. Local businesses would also see a reduction in their school-related property taxes. Taxes on seasonal recreation properties would remain unchanged.

State law requires that this specific ballot question be labeled a tax increase, because technically, that's what it authorizes: a new, voter-approved operating levy. But our school board passed a formal resolution in July committing to reduce other local levies the board controls, dollar for dollar, if voters approve this one. So this one line in the budget goes up, but it is offset by other local levies coming down at the same time.

For most residents, the net effect is an overall decrease.

Because cabin and vacation home properties are taxed separately from other local levies, with some of their property taxes going to the state, a traditional operating levy would have placed a disproportionate share of the cost on year-round residents and businesses. Over the past 25 years, the district asked voters to consider an operating levy and it was not approved.

The school board has instead worked to protect classroom programs and student services through careful budgeting — until this new state program made a more balanced approach possible.

Tuesday, November 3, 2026.

Yes! Early voting begins Friday, September 18, 2026.

Explore this website or use the Connect form to submit a question.