Freehold board will hold budget hearing March 30

BY CLARE MARIE CELANO Staff Writer

FREEHOLD — The Freehold Borough Board of Education has introduced a $20 million budget for the 2009-10 school year.

The board will hold a public hearing on the 2009-10 school budget on March 30 at 7 p.m. in the Park Avenue Elementary School cafetorium. Residents and other interested individuals will be able to comment on the budget at that time, prior to the board’s adoption of the spending plan.

According to Business Administrator Patrick DeGeorge, the budget includes a general fund of $17.4 million, a special revenue fund of $1.9 million and a debt service fund of $771,677.

DeGeorge said the budget includes a general fund tax levy of $7.7 million and a debt service tax levy of $630,302.

Residents will vote on the general fund tax levy in the April 21 school election.

Residents will not vote on the debt service tax levy as that is money the district is obligated to pay back on previously approved construction projects.

The amount of school taxes a property owner pays is based on the assessment of his property.

According to DeGeorge, the 2009-10 budget proposes to raise Freehold Borough’s K-8 school tax rate by 2.4 cents, from 76.8 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to 79.2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

The average house in Freehold Borough is assessed at $257,000. A person with a home assessed at that amount would see his K-8 school tax rise from $1,973 in 2008-09 to $2,035 in 2009-10.

The K-8 school tax is one component of the overall property tax bill, which also includes municipal taxes. Monmouth County taxes, Freehold Regional High School taxes and other assessments.

According to DeGeorge, there are no new programs slated for the coming year. He said the main focus is to maintain the programs that are already in place for students.

He said there will be a slight increase in staff this year due to the receipt of extra state funds.

“It’s not about adding new things, but more about maintaining what we have,” he said. “We are hanging on by a thread, but we are trying to do our best to balance the needs of the students with those of the taxpayers.”