By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — The Montgomery Township Board of Education passed a $76,118,769 budget for the 2008-2009 school year Tuesday, just $15,000 larger than the tentative budget adopted Feb. 26.
The budget calls for a 3.97-percent spending increase from the 2007-2008 school budget with a 2.3-percent increase from last year’s school tax rate.
Under the budget, Montgomery taxpayers will contribute $65,289,894 to the total budget, bringing the school tax rate to $1.735 per $100 of assessed value.
This means owners of a home assessed at $510,109, the average value of a house in Montgomery, would pay $8,852 in school taxes, versus the $8,653 for a home of the same value last year.
Although the revised budget calls for $66,673 more to be spent for transportation than the tentative budget approved Feb. 26, spending reductions on a few line items combined with increases in debt service aid from the state have allowed the school tax rate to remain the same as the one included in the tentative budget.
”The first change we made was to reduce our local taxes for debt service,” said Tom Venanzi, the school district’s business administrator.
”We have a budget below the 4 percent cap on the general fund tax levy and rather than go up to the maximum level for local taxes we decided to give some relief,” he said. “We’re continuing to reduce the rate of increase for local taxpayers.”
Mr. Venanzi added that next school year’s new student busing system, which the school district’s transportation department proposed, will have a positive impact on the budget.
”Our transportation department came up with a more cost effective plan that would save us $450,000,” he said.
Only about three residents directly commented on the budget, during their meeting. Their comments ranged from thanking the board for making efforts to address busing issues, to complaining about the costs of the district’s telephone bills and the size of its surplus to requesting earlier start times for the elementary schools.
”It is important that you have a surplus. … I will tell you, as we go on in time, things are going to get tighter,” said Charles Jacey Jr., the board’s vice president. “You need to have a cushion within your budget to handle emergencies and also to fund future budgets.”
He added, “We’ve been able to reduce our rate of increase, because we’ve been able to generate surpluses from previous budgets.”
Mr. Venanzi said Internet costs, which are included in the telephone bills, cause the phone bills to be very high and board President David Petit said the transportation department’s new busing plan requires the elementary schools to start later than the district’s other schools.
Montgomery residents will have the opportunity to vote on the proposed general fund local tax levy of $58,987,206 for the school budget on April 15. The remaining $6,302,688 being collected was previously approved by voters in a referendum that sought authorization from the public to borrow money for various projects.
