BCS Tax Hike At 1.99%
Rate Increase Below Allowable Tax Cap
by Doug La Rocque
The Berlin Central School Board unveiled its 2020-21 proposed school budget at an on-line public hearing on Thursday, May 28. The spending plan totals $21,897,649, which is a .61% decrease, $134,279 lower than the current year’s budget. While state aid is expected to fall $15,833 in the coming year, the Federal CARES Act revenue more than makes up for the shortfall, creating an overall state aid increase of $127,658.
This budget proposal calls for a tax levy hike of 1.99%. Under the complicated state tax cap formula, the board could have raised taxes by 2.57%, but it chose to stay under the allotted amount. The numbers beg the question, if state aid is up and expenditures are down, why the tax hike. A review of the revenue summary sheet provides at least part of the answer.
In the current budget, the District used $1.4 million from the previous year’s fund balance to make revenues and expenditures meet. This year, it is applying $500,000 of the fund balance to next year’s budget, just under $921,000 less. Some of this shortfall is offset by a nearly $469,000 increase in miscellaneous revenues, this thanks to a one time refund. The increase in state aid helped as well, but when the counting was done, the District still had to make up slightly more than $190,000, thus the need for the tax hike.
Budget Highlights
According to the board’s budget presentation, the new year will see a continuation of many current programs, such as:
• Continues all existing academic programs in current configurations/schedules in all schools
• Continues electives at the secondary level
• Continues the School within a School Program
• Continues the Credit Recovery Program at BHS
• Continues the Distance Learning Classes
• Continues all extracurricular programs
The budget also:
• Includes contractual increases in instructional and non-instructional salaries
• Includes increases in all pension costs and benefits
• Maintains all remaining budget lines increased or decreased according to history and trends
• Includes increases in appropriated fund balance and miscellaneous revenues
• Reallocated, reduced and updated other areas of the budget
Absentee Ballots Only
As has been reported in The Eastwick Press, all school budget voting this year will take place by mail with absentee ballots, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All voters should have received a copy of this ballot by now and it must be returned by 5 pm on Tuesday, June 9. If you have not received a ballot, please contact the district office.
School Board Candidates
There are two seats on the nine member school board open this year and only two candidates have requested to be placed on the ballot. They are current board member and President Frank Zwack Jr. and Derrick Gardner. Incumbent Jim Willis has chosen not to seek re-election.