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The Bellwood-Antis School Board approved its 2023-24 general fund budget, which includes a 5.7% tax increase that will cost the average household $80.21 more.
"A tax increase is unavoidable due to the lack of state funding," Gregory Gates, business manager said.
By raising the taxes to the Act 1 index, the budget's total revenue is $20,045,186, and total expenditures are $20,686,052, with $640,886 being used from the fund balance to balance the budget.
Gates said this represents a 0.77% increase from last year's budget.
The budget was approved 6-1, with Tom Finn, Kathy Burch, Matt Gibbons, Tom Hammond, Tim Mallon and Jeff Plummer voting in favor and Seth Sager voting no. Kevin Luensmann and Hope Ray were absent.
Gates said for 2022-23, BASD had the 15th lowest tax rate in the entire state.
Gates added that over the last eight fiscal years, the state's basic education subsidy has only increased about 1.27%, which is only $88,311.
Over the last seven years, special education at BASD is about 53% underfunded, which is over $1.1 million.
He said on average wages have increased about $220,000 over the last eight fiscal years, which is about 2.86%.
The increase in basic education funding every year doesn't cover the increase in pension costs.
The Public School Employees' Retirement System required employer contribution has increased over the last eight years on average by about $195,000.
This is required by the state School Code, an unavoidable cost for Bellwood, and the rates are set.
In 2019-20, cyber charter tuition was about $106,000, whereas in 2020-21 the tuition jumped to $254,000. For the 2021-22 school year, cyber charter tuition was over $387,000.
If BASD were not mandated to pay cyber charter tuition, the district would have turned a surplus for 2021-22, Gates said.
Mirror Staff Writer Cati Keith is at 814-946-7535.