School board to present tentative budget tonight

[lee...@optonline.net]

The school board is set to present its tentative budget tonight.  You can look at an overview of the budget numbers (not full details) on page 9 of the agenda, http://howell.k12.nj.us/files/events/3391/AGENDA%2003-02-11.pdf. 

 

It breaks down as a total base budget of $110,441,223, of which $64,464,148 is from the local levy (an additional $6,830,168 will be raised from local taxes for debt service - a non-cap item, as I understand it - for a total local tax levy of $71,294,316). 

 

The difference between the $110M and the $71M comes to our district from state aid (we are getting about $30M, up about $1M from last year) and federal aid as well.  You really need to attend the presentation to get a full understanding of how the numbers work, including how/why the tentative numbers on the March 2d agenda are different (by about $1.8M) from the numbers given at the Feb. 16th budget presentation, at least as far as I can figure.

 

Mr. Sanasac said the numbers will/do change, and I am sure will explain this change in his presentation tonight.

 

From what I can tell, the sports/clubs are all included in the budget for next year (I am hearing paid for by the board but continued to be run by PAL) and there is no tax increase on general fund (versus debt service) items.  We should expect to see an increase in our taxes anyway however, assuming this is the budget that goes to the voters and passes, based on debt service, not to mention increases to other parts of the budget (the Freehold Regional school district, township, county, fire, library...), but a zero on the biggest portion of the tax bill (the local school district general fund) is a step in the right direction for Howell, IMHO.

 

Some members of the board are actively soliciting your input, so, as always, I strongly encourage you to invest the few hours it takes to attend tonight's meeting and educate yourself on the budget.

 

Amy Fankhauser