EDEN • HAZELTON A Beacon of Light on the First Segregation MURTAUGH
issue 4.5 May 2025 free!
IT’S LEVY TIME
VALLEY SCHOOL SEEKS $300K RENEWAL
Supplemental levy to be spent on teachers, travel
Patrons of the Valley School District will have an opportunity to weigh in on the district’s finances on May 20.
The district is proposing to renew its two-year $300,000per-year supplemental levy. The levy proposes to use $270k for “salaries and benefits for teachers and staff” and $30k for “nonreimbursable student travel expenses.”
The polling site in the school’s old gym will be open Tuesday, May 20, from 8-8.
Superintendent Ty Jones says the levy is needed to go “above and beyond” what the state reimburses the district. “We need the dollars,” he said. “The state funds less than 29 support units; the levy adds four.”
While the district doesn’t tie any specific positions to the levy, Jones did note that “electives are important.”
According to the audited financial statements for the year ending June 30, 2024, the Valley district ended with a $116,673 surplus, which was
added to its fund balance, or savings account, bringing the savings account total to $2,146,482.
Jones thinks having twothirds of a school year in the savings account is a good thing. “It’s smart that you have those reserves if you can.”
Life Without a Levy?
While supplemental levies are common in the Magic Valley, the Murtaugh School District manages to thrive without burdening its patrons with such a tax.
“A supplemental levy would make my life easy,” said Michele Capps, superintendent of the Murtaugh School District. “But we’re cautious with taxing. We want to meet the needs of the community, but not ask for more than we need.”
While the district does have a small plant facilities levy ($170k), a supplemental levy was allowed to expire several years ago.
AHOY!
HILLSDALE
NATIVE TO COMPETE AT DAWSON CC
Buccaneers? In Montana?
Hillsdale ball player Kennan Huettig recently committed to the baseball program at Dawson Community College in Glendive, Montana. The Canyon Ridge senior’s signing ceremony was April 3.
The speedy center fielder and pitcher caught the baseball bug in the Valley Rec District’s t-ball program. After Valley he played at Hansen, Babe Ruth, and for the Hawks American Legion team. “I’ve had some great coaches,” Huettig said. “Brian Hard, Chevy Bailey, Jesse White, Tyler Mildenberg.”
He transferred to Canyon Ridge his junior year and was a natural fit
“We’re creative with how continued, p. 2
#7 Kennan Huettig on signing day with proud parents Steven & Jaime Huettig
Hillsdale Lantern
S.C. Huettig, Editor editor@hillsdalelantern.com
Published monthly in Jerome Co., Idaho © 2025 Hillsdale Lantern, all rights reserved (unless otherwise attributed)
The Dim Bulb
Join the Dim Bulb for a trip in the wayback machine, all the way to 2014 when the Valley School District was (again) asking its patrons to renew a $300k supplemental levy. Then-superintendent Dennis Coulter was quoted as saying the levy would be “used partly to maintain several teaching positions.” The implication was, of course, the Valley district wasn’t receiving enough funding from the state to support its necessary operations. In 2015, the state sent Valley $4.81 million (adjusted to 2024 dollars) to educate 568 students.
Today, the district is telling its patrons the same story: $300k is still needed for teacher salaries and benefits, and also for some student travel expenses.
But there is a key difference today: Idaho has more than doubled its education spending in the last decade. In 2024 the state sent the Valley district $5.48 million dollars to educate 471 students.
That’s an extra $670k (more than double the “supplemental” levy) to educate nearly 100 fewer students.
Public schools, noble as they may be, are no different than any other government program: they will gladly receive as much money as we give them, regardless of need.
The need that perhaps once justified Valley’s supplemental levy diminished state funding no longer exists. Vote no May 20.
―SUPPLMENTAL LEVY,
continued we do things,” Capps said, noting that such an approach wouldn’t work for everyone. The district doesn’t hire staff beyond what the state will cover. “It’s give and take. Valley has art and music, things we go without.” (Murtaugh has, however, grown an exceptional FFA program.)
Capps also spends upwards of 20 percent of her time searching for and writing grants. She said she is always looking for ways to pay for the district’s needs, noting that recent and planned improvements such as the new weight room, turf on the elementary playground, and air conditioning in the gyms were or will be largely paid for with grants. “Grants are our supplemental levy,” she said.
“I became superintendent when there was no money,” said Capps, something she has endeavored to fix during her tenure. “I remember using coupons to buy supplies for the teachers. It wasn’t always easy.”
Today, in addition to no longer clipping coupons, Capps has made sure the district has a healthy savings account: as of June 30, 2024, the district’s fund balance was $6,729,886. “I want to have money when something comes up,” said Capps. “We have been building the fund so the security is there.”
All without a supplemental levy.
HUETTIG BASEBALL,
continued “Baseball is a romantic sport,” said Huettig. “The field, the team, the stories. It’s something I can excel at.”
Nestled near the Yellowstone River three hours east of Billings, Dawson CC competes in the NJCAA MonDak Conference. Huettig plans to study wildlife biology when not on the ball field.
RAINY DAY FUNDS
STATE RUNS SPECIAL ACCOUNT FOR ALL THOSE EXTRA REVENUES
Your unspent tax dollars live out of state!
Taxing districts in Idaho are allowed to hold unallocated tax dollars in reserve, and many such districts funded by Murtaugh and Hillsdale residents do just that. The state treasurer’s office has a special account in which districts can park spare dollars.
The Local Government Investment Pool is similar to a money market account. Funds are liquid and can be retrieved quickly if needed. The pool carries no insurance, returns are not guaranteed, and funds are invested 100% in out-of-state securities. Not only do area tax dollars leave the local economy, they leave the state entirely. Over the last ten years, the return has ranged from 0.25-5.5%; as of March, the return was 4.4%. The pool’s total value at the end of March was $5.96 billion.
For your information, balances in the pool of area taxing districts and other entities, as of April 2:
RANGE DOWNSIZED
PROPOSED SHOOTING FACILITY IN THE CANYON IS OFF-TARGET
It was too nice for a gravel pit anyway
The Bureau of Land Management opted to put its plan for a developed shooting range near the Murtaugh bridge back in its holster (Lantern, 10/24). The bureau decided to keep its powder dry after several Murtaugh residents returned fire on the project.
“BLM has withdrawn the project for the time being,” according to David Freiberg, the Shoshone Field Office’s outdoor recreation planner. “However, in order to address some safety issues and adjacent landowner concerns, BLM did do some landscaping work in order to direct target shooting in a more appropriate direction.”
Said landscaping included creating target berms and positioning boulders to create a defined shooting area. There is also a fair bit of
North Snake Ground Water District 5,078,365
Rock Creek Fire District 1,170,631
Snake River Soil & Water Cons. Dist.
South Central Health District
Southern ID Solid Waste
Twin Falls County
Twin Falls Fair
Twin Falls Pest Abatement District
HIGH-SPEED STREETS
HILLSDALE FIBER INSTALL BEGINS
’
It
s really going to happen this time
Construction of a high-speed fiber internet network long promised to the city folk in Hillsdale is finally underway (Lantern 12/24). It’s hard not to notice the army of traffic cones on the streets of Hazelton and Eden.
“We’re going to do a good job out here,” said Jacob Johnson of ETS, the company coordinating the install. Johnson plans to have fiber installed at every address in Eden and Hazelton by the end of September. When the county-owned network is brought online, Johnson expects lightning-fast internet plans to be available for around $65/ month.
Plans are in the works for Murtaugh, as well.
