Fort Cherry considers tax increase

Fort Cherry officials are eyeing possible staffing cuts and an increase in property taxes to pare down a deficit projected in next year’s budget.
The district school board voted recently on a tentative 2017-18 budget. The plan projects $18.1 million in expenses and calls for a 0.365-mill tax increase, which would mean an additional $36.50 on the tax bill for a home assessed at $100,000. It would generate roughly $105,000 in new revenue.
This year’s budget includes $17.5 million in expenses.
District business manager Jessica Drylie said the largest cost increases facing the district are in salaries and benefits – including health care and state-mandated contributions into the system that funds public school workers’ pensions – which increased by $950,000.
The current proposal for next year’s budget takes into account the retirement of three teachers the district wouldn’t replace with new hires. It calls for no furloughs, but that could change.
“We are definitely going to have to reduce that expense number, so we are going to have to find ways to do that,” she said. She added the district’s options for doing so included either additional cuts through retirements or teacher furloughs.
The school board is expected to take action on the final version of the budget at its June 26 meeting.
The current proposal includes an $850,000 shortfall that Drylie said officials are trying to shrink to under $250,000.
School districts are the last taxing bodies in the county to adjust millage rates based on the new values taking effect under the countywide reassessment.
Drylie said a rate of 11.387 mills would mean no additional revenue for the district. The budget proposal includes a millage rate of 11.752.
The increase in millage amounts to 3.2 percent, the maximum Fort Cherry is able to raise taxes next year without special permission from voters or the Department of Education to exceed its state-calculated Act 1 index. The district didn’t seek such approval.