Franklin Regional proposes 3.5 mill tax hike for 2024-25 school year

Franklin Regional School Board members approved a proposed final budget for next school year that calls for a 3.5-mill property tax increase.

The final vote on the $69 million budget will come at the board’s June 17 meeting. The spending plan comes with a roughly $643,000 deficit with just under $68.4 million in projected revenue.

“The driving cost is personnel,” district financial services director Jon Perry said of the $2 million bump in staff costs. “We’re in the service industry, and almost 75% of our total costs are driven by personnel. They go up by about 4% each year.”

Salaries and benefits make up just under 65% of the budget.

Perry said health care costs have risen nearly 10%.

“We’ve had a couple unfortunate back-to-back years of large increases,” he said. “That’s driven largely by prescription drug costs. Health care is also one of the biggest drivers in the country for inflation.”

More than $550,000 in federal funding from this year — the third round of American Rescue Plan dollars earmarked for public schools — will expire in September, but Perry said the district made up more than $400,000 of that loss through a bump in earned income tax revenue.

“We continue to see a lot of strong growth in that line item,” he said.

The proposed budget would raise the district’s millage from 108.36 mills to 111.86 mills. It is the second highest in the county, behind the Burrell School District. For a home with a median assessed value of $34,670, Perry said it would mean a $121 increase in property taxes.

School board President Kevin Kurimsky said the district is trying to minimize the budget’s impact on homeowners.

“The Act I index for the district this year is 5.74 mills, and we’re at 3.5,” he said. The state’s Act I index is a formula to determine how much a school district can raise property taxes without requiring a ballot referendum.

“If you look at the last three years, we’ve had increases, but we’ve not gone up to our Act I index,” he said.

The district has raised taxes annually going back to the 2010-11 school year. The school board has increased them to the Act I limit only once in that time, and four times has come within 0.01 mills of the allowable index.

The board voted 8-1 to approved the proposed budget. Board member Traci Eshelman Ramey voted no.

The approval of the proposed final budget allows 30 day for public inspection, either through the district’s website or in person at the school’s administrative offices.

For more information, see FRSDk12.org.