Preliminary budget calls for tax increase in Washington School District
For the first time in seven years, home owners in the Washington School District will likely see a property tax increase.
Washington School Board on Monday approved a 2024-25 preliminary budget of $33,451,835. The budget includes a millage rate increase of 1.1276 mills, from 14.8524 to 15.98 mills.
Director of District Operations Richard Mancini said the average homeowner in the school district will see a tax jump of no more than $20.
Mancini said district officials will spend the next month fine-tuning the spending plan before a final budget is adopted at the June 10 school board meeting.
He said the school district is scheduled to receive about $280,000 in homestead credit, which likely will reduce the amount of the millage rate.
Mancini said the biggest increase in the budget is due to cyberschool tuitions, which have increased $1.6 million in the past two years.
The number of district students enrolled in cyberschools has risen from 60 students in recent years to 95 students last school year and between 120 and 125 students this year.
“We’re taking a killing in cyberschool tuition. If we didn’t have cyberschool expenses, we would not be having a tax increase,” said Mancini. “$1.6 million, how do you absorb that?”