Central Bucks Passes Final Budget; Taxes To Increase 2.75 Percent

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The Central Bucks School Board voted unanimously at its June meeting to pass a final $388 million budget for the 2023-24 school year that will boost the tax rate by 2.75 percent.

The increase is below the maximum 4.1 percent allowed this year under the Act 1 Index and equates to an additional $141 in property taxes for homes assessed at $40,000.

The new taxes will help fund an $8 million deficit between revenues and expenditures in the spending plan. The budget will also be dipping into fund balance and using $7.8 million in one-time PlanCon reimbursement from the state to plug the gap.

“We have enough this year because of the extra revenue we got from PlanCon, but going into 2024-25 we need to have serious conversations about reducing the fund balance drain,” said Tara Houser, chief of operations for the school district.

The increase is being driven by inflationary impacts coupled with the district’s need to hire 25 new teachers and 13 support personnel for an influx of special education and English Language Learner students into the district.

“I’m estimating $65,000 to $75,000 salary per person plus benefits. What you’re looking is probably close to $2 to $3 million worth of additional headcount,” said Houser.

The budget also layers in $3.5 million in funding to improve recruitment and retention across “all of our employment classes with a specific focus on support staff and transportation,” said Tara Houser.

“Eighty percent of our costs in this district are people,” Houser said. “Between salaries and benefits we’re going up about 5.6 percent.”

Salaries and benefits are increasing by 3.9 percent in next year’s budget. “In this market that is pretty good,” she said. “Our benefits went up about 8.4 percent. We did have a little savings with PSERS (retirement contribution), but that’s going to come back next year. They lowered it
to 34 for 2023-24. It’s probably going up to 35 or 36 in 2024-25.”

While purchased and professional services are increasing by about 10 percent, Houser said property services are down as director of operations Kevin Spencer makes “a concerted effort” to use his own staff to do some of the grounds work.

In addition, the cost of supplies is budgeted to increase due to inflationary factors.

On the revenue side of the ledger, Houser reported a slight uptick in assessed valuation. The district had been at $1.906 million. It’s now at $1.999 million. “That is a $3 million increase in value in the county in two months, which is nice,” said Houser.

Helping to plug that gap is $7.8 million in surplus coming into the district from a long-awaited state PlanCon reimbursement. The balance, she said, will come out of the district’s budgetary reserve.

Prior to the vote, Houser said any tax increase larger than 2.75 percent would help rebuild the district’s fund balance, which needs to remain at between six and eight percent of budget.

“This is definitely something we need to watch for the 2024-25 school year and 2025-26 because we can’t continue to eat fund balance,” said Houser.