HOWELL – School Board members were hoping to adopt a tentative school budget but that remains to be seen as the spending plan remains “a work in progress” between now and when it will come up for a vote.
Last month the board introduced its $123.1 million tentative budget to fund its operations. A May 6 public hearing was planned for it. The budget is expected to see some changes right up to that public hearing date.
School Board President Mark Bonjavanni said that while the board approved the tentative budget, “That word ‘tentative’ has never been truer than today.”
Members of the board’s financial committee will still have to conduct some “virtual” meetings to continue its work on the spending plan beyond its introduction. “This is needed between now and then to develop our final budget. The budget is actually a work in progress,” Bonjavanni said.
“Presently, the budget does not call for any cuts. We are looking at a $2.3 tax levy which is a bit of a decrease because our ratables in town have gone up. We did notice our state aid did go down. It was $28 million and something down this year which is down from what we were expecting from the S-2 cuts,” Bonjavanni said.
The S-2 cuts come from a state plan to redirect aid from districts that were losing students and considered to have more money than other districts.
Howell’s school district will see its state aid continue to drop during the current school year. Last year it received $32.63 million in state aid. The school district will get $30.98 million for 2019-20 which is a loss of $1.65 million.
Currently, this year’s proposed budget totals will be supported by the collection of $79.9 million in taxes from residential and commercial property owners. The tax rate is expected to drop from $1.132 per $100 of assessed valuation in 2018 to $1.101 per $100.
The owner of a home assessed at $300,000 would pay $3,303 in K-8 school taxes while the owner of a home assessed at $400,000 would pay $4,404 in K-8 school taxes while the owner of a home assessed at $500,000 would pay $5,505 in school taxes in the upcoming year.
Bonjavanni said, “the governor had talked about getting some emergency aid (to districts) but we are not thinking that we will qualify for that emergency aid.”
“We’ve been fiscally responsible and for at least 10 years as we’ve been doing long term planning. That was $50 million that he had put out. We will probably just get that $28 million,” Bonjavanni added.
“Right now, we are coming in with a 2.31 tax rate however if the governor decided to cut us even more and we don’t know what will happen with this coronavirus, we may see changes. We will continue to work on this,” Bonjavanni said.
It was noted that the Finance Committee had recommended approval of the budget’s introduction. The spending plan was approved with six votes during a March 20 board meeting, none opposed. Board member Cristy Mangano was absent at that meeting.
“The governor has pushed back finalizing the budget from the state until Sept 30. This means that we could see the final numbers in regards to state aid (or, in Howell’s case – cuts) at that time,” Bonjavanni said. “We are required currently and this could change, to meet May 6, to strike our budget. We already have been told that we will be losing $11 million over the next seven years.”
“We just hope that the numbers don’t get worse after the State final budget. We continue to attempt to be as fiscally conservative as possible,” Bonjavanni added.
Two years ago, the school district’s budget totaled $123.8 million and was supported by the collection of $78.2 million in taxes.
