A READER DROPPED A BREADCRUMB SO YOUR LADY OPENED THE LEDGER.

Dearest reader,

A reader recently dropped a Harrison Community Schools graphic into Your Lady's inbox concerning the district's 18-mill non-homestead operating millage.

And down the rabbit hole we went. 🐇📖

Now, before anyone begins polishing the pitchforks, allow me to make something perfectly clear:

Lady Budgetdown is not here to tell Harrison voters how to vote.

That decision belongs to them.

But when taxpayers are being asked to approve millions of dollars in continuing operating revenue, Your

Lady believes they deserve something wonderfully old-fashioned:

The numbers.

So I pulled out the spectacles, opened Michigan Department of Education's latest 2024–25 Bulletin 1014, and then opened Harrison Community Schools' 2024–25 audited financial statements.

And rather than beginning with campaign language from either side, we're beginning with the ledger.
📖 FIRST: WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM?

According to MDE Bulletin 1014, Harrison reported $17,689 in General Fund revenue per pupil from all sources in 2024–25:

State sources — $9,442 | 53.4%
Local sources — $5,259 | 29.7%
Federal sources — $2,980 | 16.8%
Other/reconciliation — $8 | less than 0.1%

One important distinction: that $5,259 in local revenue is ALL local-source General Fund revenue reported to MDE. It is not a measure of the 18-mill non-homestead levy by itself. Bulletin 1014 is MDE's district-level financial report, including revenue and expenditure per pupil.
📖 THEN: WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?

Harrison's latest audit reports $20,760,988 in 2024–25 General Fund expenditures.
Salaries & wages — $8,028,095 | 38.7%
Fringe benefits — $5,722,177 | 27.6%
Purchased services — $5,607,325 | 27.0%
Supplies — $1,220,465 | 5.9%
Capital outlay — $75,447 | 0.4%
Other — $107,479 | 0.5%

Harrison publicly posts that audit alongside its budgets, personnel expenditures, operating expenditures and accounts-payable check registers on its transparency page.

And there, dearest reader, is where Your Lady's eyebrow went up just a smidge.
Not because $5.6 million in purchased services is automatically good, bad, excessive or improper.

We don't lead the receipts.

We let the receipts lead us.

But when purchased services account for roughly 27 cents of every General Fund dollar spent, that's a rather large ledger entry deserving of a closer look.

So that's exactly what we're going to do.

In the next, and final part of this Harrison look, Your Lady is going underneath that $5.6 million purchased-services bucket to see what taxpayers actually purchased.

And then we're going to tackle the number that started this entire rabbit hole:

the approximately $5.4 million associated with Harrison's 18-mill non-homestead operating levy.

No YES sign.

No NO sign.

Just two questions:

Where does the money come from?

And where does it go?

The first two receipts are attached.

The spectacles remain firmly in place. 👓📖
— Lady Budgetdown
With receipts and respect.

#LadyBudgetdown #HarrisonCommunitySchools #HarrisonMichigan #ClareCounty #SchoolFinance #SchoolFunding #PublicMoney #PublicSchools #MichiganSchools #FollowTheMoney #WithReceiptsAndRespect