By Christopher Magan

St. Paul Pioneer Press

ST. PAUL — Voters in the Forest Lake school district have said no twice in the past five years to paying more taxes for capital projects. In November, they’ll be asked for a third time.

School board members voted Thursday to ask for $161 million in two capital requests. Much of the money would be used for maintenance and repairs to school buildings.

Forest Lake is one of at least seven metro districts expected to ask taxpayers for more money for school facilities and classroom materials this year. The others are Burnsville-Eagan-Savage, Edina, Shakopee, South Washington County, Stillwater and Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan.

Those requests come as lawmakers again are debating whether Minnesota should update the way it pays for school buildings and supplies. Most districts have to persuade voters to fund those projects.

A half-dozen bills got initial hearings last week in the Minnesota Senate education finance committee. Most of the proposals are the result of a 2014 recommendation from a facilities task force that found Minnesota needs to spend up to $300 million more a year to keep its schools in shape.

The changes would be costly and face a lot of competition at the Capitol. Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers want to spend new money on preschool and higher education, and many Republicans have supported local voters having control over school facilities funding.

Just 25 Minnesota school districts are part of the state’s alternative facilities funding program that allows them to raise taxes for capital projects without voter approval.

The rest have to win voter support, something that has been tough in Forest Lake, where voters rejected a larger $176 million bond request last spring.

A smaller proposal also was voted down in 2010.

Forest Lake Superintendent Linda Madsen was at the Capitol on Thursday to ask lawmakers to help districts such as hers raise money for building maintenance. She said her district is in a “vicious cycle” of having to tap the general fund to make repairs.

In many schools, students’ learning materials are decades old, Madsen said.

“They have to use the same classroom equipment their parents and even their grandparents used,” she said.

Forest Lake voters will decide two tax requests: one for $143 million for the most needed projects and another for $18 million worth of athletic, music and other projects. Together, the new levies would cost the owner of a $200,000 home, the district average, $92 the first year and $113 a year after that.

One of the bills introduced by lawmakers essentially would open alternative facilities funding to all Minnesota school districts. That would help districts such as Forest Lake and more rural districts that face similar funding challenges.

“This is great legislation. It needs to pass,” Earl Athman, a business manager in the Pierz district and a member of the facilities task force, told lawmakers. “We need this type of legislation to fix our buildings. The deferred maintenance out there is huge.”

Yet, belonging to the alternative facilities funding system doesn’t address all of districts’ facilities needs. Most of the school districts asking voters for new capital funds this year are already part of the alternative facilities program.

Burnsville-Eagan-Savage, Edina, Stillwater, South Washington County and the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan districts belong to the program. Forest Lake and Shakopee do not.

Other related legislative proposals would help districts pay for classroom technology and Internet infrastructure. All the school facilities and technology-related bills are expected to come up for debate again in February after party leaders announce their budget plans.

—Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC