Marion County Commissioners approved an emergency distribution of $623,735 to the five county school districts Thursday.

The funds were from taxes levied by each of the districts, but the county collected the taxes.

Districts hadn’t received the full amount they expected in their property taxes earlier this month, USD 410 Superintendent Steve Noble said after the meeting. At USD 410 Board of Education meeting Monday, he said the district expects a 91 percent collection rate. Before the emergency distribution, the rate was about 81 percent.

After the Thursday meeting, Deputy County Treasurer Kathy Swan said the distribution was lower than usual because May property tax payments were not all processed before the distribution.

It was important for the school districts to receive the money now, because districts’ budget years end June 30. If the districts hadn’t received the funds before then, they would have lost out on matching funds from the state.

The state provides matching funds for the taxes levied by school districts with lower property values. In USD 410’s case, the district receives about 40 percent of their local property taxes in matching funds.

Distributions to each of the districts were:

• Centre USD 397: $51,820.
• Peabody-Burns USD 398: $117,496.
• Marion/Florence USD 408: $126,352.
• Hillsboro USD 410: $237,803.
• Goessel USD 411: $90,265.

Swan said the county’s auditing firm didn’t have a problem with the distribution.