Press Release
Somers School District No. 29
Budget Amendment Announcement
At the August 2025 Budget Meeting, the Somers School Board authorized a modest mill levy reduction. This reduction was intended to lower taxes by approximately 5%. However, in late October, it was noticed that a data entry error unintentionally reduced property taxes far more than the Board had authorized, and closer to 25%.
This error resulted in the district undercollecting revenue and created a shortfall that impacts essential school operations. Reserves for the General, Transportation, and Retirement Funds were reallocated due to the inadvertent tax relief given from the data entry error. To restore these reserves to the levels necessary for safe and effective school operations, the district plans to collect the originally intended, but uncollected, 20% through a special tax assessment in February of 2026.
This process will not increase taxes beyond what was originally planned to be assessed; it simply recoups the amount that was intended to have been collected before the data entry error. The Somers and Lakeside School Board will discuss adopting three separate budget amendments totaling $630,460.15. This correction will be funded through the additional collection in February 2026, administered by the Flathead County Treasurer.
The Board and district leadership sincerely apologize for this mistake and for any confusion or inconvenience it may have caused. We are reviewing and strengthening internal processes and checks and balances at all levels to ensure this does not happen again. A public meeting to consider and adopt these budget amendments will be held on Monday, December 15, at 6:00 p.m. in the Somers Middle School Commons. A community question and answer session will also be scheduled closer to the assessment date in late January or early February, to ensure transparency and address any community concerns.
Even with this adjustment, individual households are still expected to see an overall tax savings of approximately 5%. Below are examples of tax impacts for a range of home values within the Somers & Lakeside District related to the February 2026 assessment, which is intended solely to restore district reserves unintentionally used for tax relief.
Market Value - Estimated Correction
$ 100,000 - $ 11.35
$ 300,000 - $ 36.59
$ 600,000 - $ 77.09
$ 750,000 - $100.00
$ 1,000,000 - $ 139.84
$ 2,000,000 - $ 358.29
Again, we apologize for any inconvenience, misunderstanding, or general frustrations this may cause before the holidays. This is partially why we chose February as a timeline for the assessment to ensure people had time to adequately plan for the additional assessment. Additionally, I want to be clear that we are working to strengthen our internal controls don't allow for a mistakes don't happen again.
Thank you for your time in reading.
Superintendent Alex Ator