Thanks to the first state budget in several years, local school districts in Illinois will be able to finalize their budgets before classes start. Monday night the Moline school board approved a 116 million dollar budget for the fiscal year that began this month.
Chief Financial Officer Dave McDermott says it's about 25 million lower than the previous year when the district borrowed money for two major construction projects - re-building Franklin School after a fire, and the new performing arts center at Moline High School.
The economy, and the state, also made his job easier.
"The major changes are the economy is improving which is good for public entities like us - the schools, the roads, and the cities. So that's always good. And then the state budget passed at the end of May for the first time in whenever. And that's always good to have a school year start when the state budget is funded."
He also hopes Moline will receive some additional state money next month. Last year Illinois switched from general state aid to what's called an "evidence based formula" which is supposed to provide more funding for the neediest school districts. The new allocations will be announced in late August.
