Plan features 1 percent tax increase, spending decrease
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
The Burlington Area School District Finance Committee put a tentative stamp of approval on the district budget for the 2013-14 school year Monday.
The budget received unanimous approval from the voting members of the Finance Committee, but everyone acknowledged that while the general numbers are in place, there could be a lot of adjustment down the line.
The reason is that the district is still waiting to see what state aid numbers will look like. There have been some indications that the biennial budget will provide more state aid than expected, or offer a change in the revenue limits, but nothing will be finalized until July.
As a result, district officials could really only provide a best guess.
“This is what we have at this time,” said BASD Superintendent Peter Smet. “It’ll probably, well, it will change. If it were to be the same, it would be an amazing coincidence.”
The district also received its final budget adjustments for the 2012-13 school year Monday night. BASD ended up with about $144,000 more in revenues than expected, but also saw expenditures roughly $400,000 more than expected.
The major addition to expenses was an increase in the district’s workers compensation insurance, and then a needed transfer of funds to special education for maintenance of effort purposes. Otherwise, the district would lose federal aid.
The 2013-14 budget is currently based on the following assumptions:
• An approximate 1 percent tax levy increase, for a total revenue increase of about $220,000 in tax money;
• A decrease in general fund expenditures to about $37.64 million;
• An assumption of a 1 percent increase in staff wages;
• State aid remaining steady at $14.53 million.
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