Minnesota school referendum printing: what a district may say, and what the committee must

Can a Minnesota school district promote its own referendum?

Short answer: a district may inform. It may not advocate with public money. The longer answer matters, because the authority is not a statute. No Minnesota law says “districts may inform but not advocate.” The rule comes from a line of Attorney General opinions and one Court of Appeals decision — and if someone hands you Minn. Stat. 211B.09 as the citation, that statute does not say this at all. It is the most common miscitation in this subject area.

The formulation to know comes from a 2011 Minnesota Court of Appeals decision, quoted in the Attorney General’s October 2020 opinion: a school district “may expend a reasonable amount of funds for the purpose of educating the public about school-district needs and disseminating facts and data,” but “may not expend funds to promote the passage of a ballot question by presenting one-sided information on a voter issue.”

The test is one-sidedness — not the words “vote yes.” That is the most useful sentence on this page. A mailer that never asks for a vote still crosses the line if it presents only the case for passage.

Now the hedge, and it is a real one. The Minnesota Supreme Court has never decided whether a district may ever spend public funds on one-sided advocacy; it expressly declined to reach the question. The Office of the State Auditor, in guidance reviewed in June 2025, says the law is now less certain and tells local governments to seek legal advice before deciding. Attorney General opinions are not binding on courts. Nothing here is legal advice, and these rules change. Run every district piece past your district’s attorney.

What a district piece can actually put on paper

The safe zone is factual and even-handed: what is on the ballot in the ballot’s own words, how much revenue it raises, what it costs the owner of a typical home, when and where the vote happens.

For an operating referendum, the statute writes much of it for you. Minn. Stat. 126C.17, subd. 9(b) requires the taxpayer notice to “project the anticipated amount of tax increase in annual dollars for typical residential homesteads, agricultural homesteads, apartments, and commercial-industrial property within the school district,” and to state: “Passage of this referendum will result in an increase in your property taxes.” For a renewal, the substitute is “Passage of this referendum extends an existing operating referendum at the same amount per pupil as in the previous year.”

What tips a factual piece into advocacy is rarely one sentence. It is accumulation.

• Adjectives that argue

  “Critical.” “Urgent.” “Our kids deserve.” Words that rate rather than describe.

• A call to action

  Anything telling the reader what to do with the ballot instead of what is on it.

• One-directional consequences

  What is lost if it fails, with no equivalent statement of what it costs if it passes.

• Design that argues

  A slogan headline, a rally palette, photography chosen for feeling. Layout is content too.

A habit, not a legal test: would a resident who intends to vote no read this and feel their own tax dollars paid to argue against them? If so, it needs another pass.

The postage rule: the committee pays its own way

This is the cleanest rule on the page, and the one broken most often — usually at the last minute, by someone being helpful.

Op. Att’y Gen. 159a-3 (May 24, 1966) is the foundational school-district opinion. As the 2020 opinion describes it, it answered three questions. May a district spend public funds to create and mail literature urging passage of a bond issue? No. May a district spend public funds to mail advocacy literature that someone else paid to create? Also no. May board members orally advocate to citizens’ groups? Yes — board members, “like other public officials, are free to appear before citizens’ groups to support their decision and advocate approval of a bond issue.”

The middle answer is the one that surprises people. The committee paying the print bill does not cure the district paying the postage. The 2020 opinion cites the 1966 opinion for exactly that point: “postage is not a permissible expense.”

The district’s bulk permit, postage meter, mailroom, and staff hours are public resources. The committee mails on its own permit, from its own indicia. There is no rounding error to hide in, either: the 2020 opinion says courts would find “all unauthorized expenditures are prohibited, no matter how small.”

Backpack mail is the question every district asks, and we found no statute, opinion, or guidance answering it either way. We will not guess for you. Ask your attorney before a single flyer goes into a folder.

Does a district’s informational mailing need a “paid for by”?

On the face of the statutes, no. Minn. Stat. 211B.04 reaches only “campaign material,” defined in 211B.01, subd. 2 as material disseminated “for the purpose of influencing voting” — genuinely informational material is not campaign material. Subd. 3(b) separately exempts anyone “not required to register or report under chapter 10A or 211A,” and a district registers under neither. And the notice content 126C.17 prescribes contains no attribution line.

So there is no Minnesota statute requiring a district’s informational referendum mailing to say who paid for it. Adding a district attribution line is a defensible transparency choice — not a legal requirement. Confirm that with your counsel, not with a print shop’s website.

One live trap, and it is new. Minn. Stat. 211B.066 took effect January 1, 2026 and reaches any person or entity mailing an absentee ballot application or a sample ballot. The mailing must say: “This mailing is not an official election communication from a unit of government. This [absentee ballot application or sample ballot] has not been included at the request of a government official.” With a sample ballot enclosed, add: “This is a sample ballot, not an official ballot. You cannot cast the enclosed sample ballot.” It must be “printed in a typeface and format designed to be clearly visible at the time the mailing is opened,” the sender’s name and street address go in the return-address position on the envelope, and the permanent-absentee-list checkbox “must be left blank.”

The section exempts “a unit of government or employee of that unit of government when discharging official election duties” — so this one is aimed at the committee. A volunteer group mailing a friendly “request your absentee ballot” piece walks straight into envelope rules it has never heard of.

The citizens’ committee: what it is and where it registers now

The committee is not the district. Different money, different rules, different pieces — and it is the only lawful home for advocacy, on either side of the question. Everything below applies equally to a committee organized against a levy.

A group formed to win or beat the question is a ballot question political committee: the Campaign Finance Board’s registration form defines it as “an association whose major purpose is to promote or defeat a ballot question and only makes expenditures to promote or defeat a ballot question.” An existing organization spending some of its money on the question uses a ballot question political fund instead.

Where it registers changed on January 1, 2025, and most of what you will find online predates that. Chapter 10A’s “ballot question” definition used to reach statewide questions plus Hennepin County, a few Hennepin cities, and Minneapolis Special School District No. 1. Those clauses were struck. Minn. Stat. 10A.01, subd. 7 now covers questions voted on by “all voters of a county, city, school district, township, or special district.” Every Minnesota school district ballot question is now a chapter 10A ballot question.

The threshold is Minn. Stat. 10A.14, subd. 1a: register within 14 days of receiving or spending more than $5,000 in a calendar year on the question. The general $750 trigger expressly does not apply here — do not blend the numbers. Below $5,000 there is no registration anywhere, because chapter 211A no longer reaches ballot questions at all. In a small district, that is the usual case.

Two cautions. The Board’s own published handbook still carries the pre-2025 scope and would tell a Wright County levy committee the Board has no jurisdiction over it; the Board’s current registration form matches current law. Call the Board at 651-539-1180 rather than trust either document, or this page. And businesses may lawfully fund a levy committee — Minn. Stat. 211B.15, subd. 4 permits corporate contributions to promote or defeat a ballot question, though not to a school board candidate. Our ballot question campaign guide goes deeper.

The committee’s disclaimer changed on May 19, 2026

If your artwork reads “Prepared and paid for by the ....... committee,” it is on a dead template. The Legislature rewrote Minn. Stat. 211B.04 in the 2026 session, effective May 19, 2026.

The required form now: “Prepared and paid for by (name of entity), (address).” The address “must be the entity’s mailing address, an actively monitored email address, or the entity’s website if the website includes the entity’s mailing address or email address.” If the material is produced and disseminated at no cost, “paid for” may be omitted.

The part that constrains design, not just copy: subd. 5(a) is in force now and requires that on written communications other than an outdoor sign, website, or social media page, the disclaimer be “printed in 8-point font or larger and provided in black text, or in color text that is in high contrast, on a white background.” A disclaimer reversed out of a dark photo was fine two years ago and is not compliant today. The statute does not define “high contrast” and no rule sets a number — so we set them black on white and stop guessing.

Outdoor signs sit outside that paragraph. The new sign sizes — 12-point under 2′ x 3′, one inch up to 4′ x 8′, six inches above that — apply only to “signs printed on or after January 1, 2027,” and earlier signs may keep being used. Grandfathering runs on the printing date, not the posting date. Signs for November 3, 2026 are outside it; a 2027 reprint is not. Details in our campaign sign disclaimer guide.

Two things not to do. Do not chase the sub-$5,000 exemption in subd. 3(b): we found no agency guidance or case applying it to a levy committee, and a missing disclaimer is a misdemeanor. Put one on everything. And never put “not coordinated with or approved by any candidate” on a levy piece — that disclaimer is candidate-only, and no such thing as a ballot question independent expenditure exists in Minnesota.

Two workstreams, and they must never look like one mailer

The district piece and the committee piece are legally distinct documents with different funders, different rules, and different jobs. If they land in the same mailbox looking like a matched set — same palette, same type, same photo treatment, same envelope — you have handed a complainant an exhibit. A resident who sees a district-funded factual notice and a persuasion postcard in one brand system will conclude the district paid for both. That impression is what complaints are built from.

So build them apart on purpose:

• Different visual systems

  Separate palettes, type, and grids. The district piece should look like the district’s other official mail. The committee piece should look like a campaign.

• Different mail streams

  Different permits, indicia, return addresses, and drop dates. That is a mailing services decision made early, not a fix applied late.

• Different formats

  A district notice is a notice — a letter or a factual postcard. If the district needs depth, a plain question-and-answer booklet carries it without arguing.

• Different approvals

  District pieces route through the business office and district counsel. Committee pieces route through the committee treasurer. Never one chain for both.

Content splits the same way. The district piece answers what, how much, what it costs a median home, and when. The committee piece makes the case. Our political direct mail guide covers the persuasion side, and the mail drop calculator helps a committee plan drops around the district’s notice window rather than on top of it.

Which 2026 dates are open, and the schedule back from them

Minn. Stat. 205A.05, subd. 1a gives school districts five special election dates: the second Tuesday in February, April, May, and August, and the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. In 2026 those are February 10, April 14, May 12, August 11, and November 3. Only August 11 and November 3 are left on the calendar — and for a question not already called, August 11 is effectively closed. The written notice to each county auditor under 205A.07, subd. 3 is due at least 84 days out, which for an August 11 election was May 19, 2026. If your board has not already called it, November 3 is your date. Confirm with your county auditor.

Which one you may use depends on the question. An operating referendum under 126C.17 must be held in November — and one held on any other day “must be conducted by mail,” with the taxpayer notice due “at least 20 days before the referendum” instead of the usual window. Capital project levies and bond questions may use any of the five dates. In practice, operating referendums land on November 3.

Counting back from November 3, 2026:

• August 11 — 84 days out

  Written notice to each county auditor, including the title and language of each ballot question. It is also the last day a board may cancel a special election it called. Money committed to print before this date carries genuine cancellation risk.

• August 21 — 74 days out

  Written notice to the commissioner of education. MDE’s published guidance states different tiers than the statute’s flat 74 days, and we could not reconcile them. Use the earliest date any source gives, and confirm with MDE and your county auditor.

• September 19 to October 19

  The taxpayer notice window — 126C.17, subd. 9(b) requires delivery by mail “at least 15 days but no more than 45 days before the day of the referendum” to each taxpayer.

• October 19 — 15 days out

  Copy of the notice to the commissioner and each county auditor. MDE asks for a draft earlier so it can review “before final printing.” Build that review into the schedule.

Signs run on their own clock, and it is already running: the Minn. Stat. 211B.045 window is open from June 26 to November 13, 2026, and inside it municipal ordinances cannot regulate size or number. Our November 2026 referendum print calendar lays production dates over all of this.

Before you print anything

Minnesota’s rules here changed in 2024, again in 2025, and again in May 2026 — and no Attorney General opinion or reported case has interpreted any of it. The Attorney General’s most recent statement predates all three changes. Every template, blog post, and handout older than roughly June 2026 is unreliable on the disclaimer wording, and anything older than January 2025 is unreliable on where a committee registers. That includes the binder from the last levy, handed over in good faith by people who did it exactly right in 2022.

This is a printer’s page, not a lawyer’s. Nothing on it is legal advice, we are not your counsel, and the rules will move again. Before a district piece goes to press, run it past your district’s attorney. Before a committee piece goes to press, call the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board (cfb.mn.gov, 651-539-1180) and read the current session-law text at revisor.mn.gov — the codified statute page is not always caught up. The Secretary of State (sos.state.mn.us) is the other authority. We are not.

What we do is everything after that. We design district notices and committee pieces in Buffalo, MN and produce them with trusted print partners, and we keep the two jobs visibly and physically apart. We work with districts and with committees on any side of any question — which is exactly why we care about the line. Tell us your election date and we will build the schedule backward from it. See schools for the district side and political campaigns for the committee side.

Frequently asked questions

• Can a Minnesota school district promote its own referendum?

  Not with public funds, according to the Attorney General and a published Court of Appeals decision. A district may spend a reasonable amount educating the public and disseminating facts and data, but may not present one-sided information to promote passage. The test is one-sidedness, not the words vote yes. The Minnesota Supreme Court has never ruled on it. Ask your district's attorney — this is not legal advice.

• Does a school district's informational referendum mailer need a paid for by line?

  There is no Minnesota statute requiring one. The disclaimer law reaches campaign material — material disseminated for the purpose of influencing voting — and separately exempts anyone not required to register or report under chapter 10A or 211A, which a school district is not. The statutory taxpayer notice content includes no attribution line. Adding one is a transparency choice, not a requirement. Confirm with your counsel.

• Is there still time to hold a school referendum in 2026?

  November 3 is the realistic date. Of the five uniform election dates, only August 11 and November 3 remain on the calendar, and the written notice to each county auditor is due at least 84 days out — which for August 11 was May 19, 2026. An operating referendum must be held in November anyway unless conducted by mail. Confirm your options with your county auditor.

• Does a school levy committee have to register with the Campaign Finance Board?

  Only above the threshold. Minn. Stat. 10A.14, subd. 1a requires registration within 14 days of receiving or spending more than $5,000 in a calendar year on a ballot question. Since January 1, 2025, every Minnesota school district question falls under chapter 10A. Below $5,000 there is no registration anywhere. Call the Board at 651-539-1180 to confirm your situation.

• What disclaimer goes on Minnesota school levy campaign material in 2026?

  As of May 19, 2026 the required form is: Prepared and paid for by (name of entity), (address). The address may be a mailing address, an actively monitored email address, or a website that shows one. On written pieces other than outdoor signs it must be at least 8-point, in black text or high-contrast color text, on a white background.