Tax Hike Cut Without Dropping School Programs

When the Nazareth Area School Board last voted on the proposed 2013-2014 budget in February, the spending plan totaled $71.43 million and the property tax increase was 0.73 mills.

Since then, the administration has been able to whittle down those numbers, in part by eliminating an employee in the support services staff—one of three support staff employees to lose their jobs in recent months.

But no programs have been cut, Superintendent Dennis Riker said Monday night.

The budget total now stands at $71.35 million and the tax increase is down to 0.65 mills – the increase was 0.92 mills when the budget was introduced last fall. The 0.65-mill increase equals 1.34 percent.

In the “whittled down” version, a property with a “homestead value” of $100,000 is looking at a tax bill that would go up $65.

For a home with the district’s median homestead value of $68,100, the increase would be $44, and for a home with the average homestead value of $78,065, the increase would be $51.

The school board Monday night approved the final 2013-2014 budget with the lower numbers. Board member Chris Miller cast the lone “no” vote. Board president Lorin Bradley was absent.

After the budget vote, meanwhile, the board approved the termination of an employee. This action was separate from budget actions and is not the third employee cut from the support services staff, Riker said.

The terminated employee was identified only by a number—1506—with the termination effective Tuesday.

Speaking after the meeting, Riker said he could not identify the employee and noted the employee had not yet been notified as of Monday night.

After the February budget vote, Riker said a new factor in the spending plan was an unknown number of personnel cuts that equaled $68,543.

On Monday night, Riker revealed that the cuts were the two jobs from support services. He said the two employees have been notified of their job losses.