$150 million Boyertown school budget raises taxes 3%

COLEBROOKDALE — With a 5-2 vote, the Boyertown Area School Board adopted a $150 million final budget that will raise property taxes by 3 percent.

Board member James Brophy was absent at the May 27 meeting, and members Ruth Dierolf and Christine Neiman provided the two votes against the budget that night. Brophy voted against the preliminary final budget on April 22, a document little changed from the final version adopted a month later.

“The way it’s presented, with a lot of questions, I’m going to go no,” Dierolf said before casting her vote.

No other board members offered comment on their vote.

The only comment from the public came from former board member Donna Usavage who called the spending plan “a good budget,” but criticized “the process, or the lack thereof. Where’s the long-term plan? What’s the big picture,” she said, adding “I feel like this is not the fiscal conservatism you got elected on.”

The new millage is 32.690, up by .952 mills from the current millage of 31.738.

Of the total budget of $150,604,017 in expenses, $98,154,805 will go toward instruction, according to the budget documents.

Although the state tax cap, or index, would have allowed the district to raise taxes as high as 4.8 percent, the board, as it has done in previous years, stuck with a 3 percent tax increase.

It did this, in part, by assuming that the district will get the entire increased amount proposed in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget, proposed in February, which would be unusual. The board also took $1.8 million out of the $11 million unassigned fund balance surplus to balance the budget, an amount which exactly matches the gap between the $148,837,506 in estimated revenues and the $150,604,017 in anticipated expenditures.

The district is carrying a little over $95.8 million in debt, which is projected to be reduced to $91.8 million by this time in 2026, according to the budget documents.

The new millage will generate $38.7 million in tax revenue from the Berks County portion of the district and $53.8 million from the Montgomery County side, according to the budget documents filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

The budget also includes “pass-through” funding from the Homestead/Farmstead tax relief program. The state will provide just over $3 million from gambling proceeds to Boyertown, which will divide that money up among 12,159 registered homestead properties and 127 farmstead properties, providing annual tax relief of $246.38.