Approved budget raises taxes 3.6%

COLEBROOKDALE >> With a 6-2 vote, the Boyertown School Board has adopted a $121.1 million budget for the 2019-20 school year that will raise property taxes by 3.6 percent.

Voting no at the June 18 meeting were board members Christine Neiman and Ruth Dierolf. Board member Clay Breece was absent, as he was for the preliminary budget vote in February.

The budget will increase the millage rate from the current 26.37 mills to 27.33 mills.

According to the presentation by the administration, for a home assessed at $100,000, the vote means a $96 annual

increase in property taxes. For a home assessed at $150,000, the annual increase is $144; and for a home assessed at $200,000 the annual increase works out to $192.

The average property assessment for the entire 100 square-mile school district is $132,521. But the average property assessment in the Berks County portion of the district is $116,386, while the average assessment in the Montgomery portion is $147,721.

About 68 percent of total budget expenditures in the coming school year will be funded by local tax dollars, with the state’s estimated contribution of $36.6 million representing just under 30 percent of the budget, according to the administration.

Although the budget numbers have changed since February when the preliminary budget was adopted, the bottom line has not; the tax hike remains the same in the final budget as was proposed in February.

The budget adopted June 18 calls for using $846,814 of reserve fund balance to close the gap between revenues and expenditures.

The 3.6 percent tax hike exceeds the state’s Act 1 tax cap of 2.8 percent, but the district applied for and received a “special exception” to exceed the index due to excessive special education costs.

The budget calls for spending more than $21 million on special education costs in the coming school year, a little more than 17 percent of the entire budget.

The budget deficit of $1.3 million calculated in March was reduced to $876,247 by April due to some changes in expenses and savings.

Although the district is weathering an increase in healthcare premiums of nearly $846,000, as well as a predicted increase in transportation costs of more than $111,000; some of those increases are counter-balanced by nearly $450,000 saved from teacher retirements and resignations and another $188,000 saved by re-organizing the Office of Teaching and Learning, according to the administration’s budget presentation.

And it looks like the tax hikes will just keep coming.

According to a five-year forecast put together by the administration, annual tax hikes ranging from 3.35 to 3.42 percent will be required to balance future budgets.

Not raising taxes would result in an accumulated deficit of more than $13.4 million by the 2023-24 school year, according to the forecast.

State law does not allow public school districts to have budget deficits and requires they be balanced.