By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
The Board of Education unanimously passed a $138 million budget for 2012-13 Monday night, the first time a school budget passed without a township vote.
”We are going to talk about tonight, a budget that is, in many ways, very frugal,” Superintendent Dr. Gary McCartney said at the beginning of the budget presentation and public hearing.
While the budget includes a 4.9 cents per $100 of assessed valuation increase, the actual tax levy to residents dropped by about $600,000.
Despite the drop in the levy, dropping valuation of the municipality by 2.3 percent caused the tax rate to increase, Business Administrator Anthony Tonzini said.
Mr. Tonzini said the decrease in the value of town alone would have meant a 7 cents per $100 of assessed valuation increase.
According to the district, the increase will be $98 for the owner of a home assessed at $200,000.
Overall, the budget increases spending by only 1.15 percent compared to last year, Mr. Tonzini said, and refinancing several million in debt earlier this year helped save almost $3 million in debt service payments in the budget.
An increase of about $7 million in state aid as compared to last year also helped keep any increase down, according to officials.
The district also will save an estimated $36,000 by moving the board elections to November. That move, approved by the district earlier this year, also allowed the panel to pass the budget without a public referendum as long as it stayed within the state mandated 2 percent budget cap. The district must keep this option for at least four years before going back to April elections, according to the state.
Former board member and a member of this year’s Citizen Budget Advisory Committee, Martin Abschutz, spoke during the public portion of the meeting and said some residents were concerned taking away the vote would mean the board just would raise the budget by 2 percent each year.
Mr. Abschutz said the budget passed Monday should show the community the board can be trusted to develop an efficient plan without simply raising spending to the maximum allowed.
Dr. McCartney said it is very important the public trusts what the board is doing and it would be responsible with the public’s tax money.

