Greensburg Salem to vote on 1.5-mill tax increase

The Greensburg Salem School Board will vote this week on a budget with a 1.5-mill tax increase.

A 1.5-mill tax increase would cost the average property owner an extra $25.51 in real estate taxes and bring the millage to 89.72.

The district hasn’t made many major changes to its 2019-20 budget since the draft approved last month.

The $47 million budget is about $622,000 larger than last school year’s, with more than half of the increase driven by a projected $339,000 increase in charter school expenses.

One change from last month’s proposed budget is more than $360,000 designated for a reserve account. This is money set aside to cover pay raises or benefit costs that may result from an ongoing negotiation with the district’s teachers union.

Negotiations are ongoing and are not expected to complete before the district expects to approve its budget this week, according to Business Manager James Meyer.

Meyer said the $360,588 figure may not necessarily reflect the salary or benefit increases in a new teachers contract.

The proposed budget also calls for transferring about $580,000 from the district’s reserves to its capital fund. That fund is used to pay for major construction and renovation projects and the transfer is up $200,000 from last month’s proposal.

The district has a long list of projects officials hope to complete this summer, including the repair of heating and air conditioning systems in four of its five school buildings.

The final proposed budget has a deficit of nearly $130,000.

The district expects to have about $3.3 million in reserve by the end of the 2019-20 school year.