Going into the meeting, the budget increased the tax levy 4.15 percent. At the request of the board, the administration came up with $305,000 in cuts to bring the levy to less than 4 percent at 3.91 percent. After deliberating on specific cuts, the board settled on $290,000 in cuts to bring the tax levy just below 4 percent.
The board did not have the exact tax levy figure because its deliberations continued up until the vote a few minutes past 11 p.m., requiring assistant superintendent Linda Purvis to ammend the budget resolution and property tax report card with the updated figures.
The adopted 2013-2014 budget totals $145,286,213, an increase from last year of about 2.5 percent. It is the second lowest in 20 years, Purvis said. However, the tax levy of 132,037,363 still exceeds the state-mandated property tax cap by $600,854.
The board wanted to reduce the tax levy to below 4 percent to give the budget the best possible chance of passing with 60 percent of the vote, which is required because the budget exceeds the tax cap. If it complied with the cap, the budget would require a simple majority vote.
The board also decided not to increase funding for The Center@862 from the proposed $65,000 to $87,500 as the teen center had requested.
The public vote will be May 21.
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