Franklin Regional passes $61M budget with 2.54-mill tax hike

Franklin Regional school directors voted 6-3 Monday to adopt a 2020-21 budget with a 2.54-mill tax increase.

Despite expenditure reductions related to special education funding, fewer commissions on tax collections and no change in insurance premiums, which were expected to rise, the $61.6 million budget stands with the tax hike.

The district’s millage rate will now be 100.6 mills. One mill is estimated to bring in $348,525 for the coming school year.

Directors Bill Yant, Ed Mittereder and Gary English voted against the budget.

“We’re living in extraordinary times,” English said, referencing economic figures related to the coronavirus pandemic. “This administration has not contained costs, and the citizens cannot afford the 15th tax hike in 16 years.”

The 2.54-mill tax hike means an additional $87 for a district home with the median assessed value of $34,400.

“The reason that it’s 15 out of 16 years is because we’ve done small, incremental increases,” board member Gregg Neavin said.

The revenue shortfall in 2020-21 is being plugged with $1.2 million from the district’s unassigned fund balance. In addition, a little more than a half-million dollars will supplement the district’s pension responsibilities, with just over a million dollars coming from funds earmarked for phasing in debt service related to the Sloan “elementary campus” project.

“I feel we should have worked harder to close the gap without using so much of our fund balance reserves,” director Bill Yant said in casting his no vote.

Despite not usually meeting in July, Superintendent Gennaro Piraino announced the board would hold a special meeting to outline its plan for returning to the classroom in the fall.

A date for that meeting has not yet been set.