School Board Approves 2012-13 Budget With Tax Increase

Manchester's Wednesday night voted to approve the district's nearly $48 million budget for the 2012-13 school year, a spending plan that includes a tax increase of $98 for the average assessed home value in the township.

The budget includes a tax rate increase of 5 cents per $100 of assessed home value — the average home in Manchester is valued at $194,600, said business administrator Craig Lorentzen during a public hearing at . 

The anticipated rise in taxes is mainly due to a $115 million drop in the township's rateable base, since five senior cooperatives recently won tax appeals, Lorentzen said.

The tax increase would have been 2 cents — rather than the 5 cents in the approved budget — had the appeals not been granted. Had the rateables remained about the same as in the previous budget, the tax increase would have been $42 over the year. 

"You can see how significantly that decrease in the tax base had an impact on the budget we presented tonight," Lorentzen said. "The rateables is not something we control. We just have to deal with it."

Rateables dropped about $5.6 million for the 2011-12 budget, Lorentzen said, which was "significant, but not as noticeable as this year."

will not factor into the 2012-13 budget, Lorentzen said. Changes in home values may be reflected in the 2013-14 budget, depending on when the process is completed. 

The budget includes a total of $5,370,017 in state aid, a 2.3 percent increase from the $5,248,309 awarded in 2011-12. But because of increased payments to the state, that additional aid for the next school year , Lorentzen said. 

The budget is not subject to a public vote, since it did not exceed the state mandated 2 percent cap. Anything over that amount would have been put to a public vote in November under the new law passed by the state which .

A waiver could have been taken to add $625,000 in medical and pension costs to the tax levy, but administrators decided against it, said Superintendent of Schools David Trethaway.

Trethaway said that administrators must take into account taxpayers and students while creating the budget. To reduce the tax burden on residents, the district has looked to ways to save money, such as entering into cooperatives with other districts and installing solar panels at the high school.

"There's also the other side of the equation, and that's our responsibility to the students," he said. "We owe it to our students to give them as much opportunity as other students in Ocean County and any other students across the country."

Though "extremely impressed" by the budget presentation, resident Fred Lund asked the board during the meeting's public comment portion why they were voting on the budget the same day it was fully presented to residents. 

"I cannot understand why there weren't additional presentations like this," he said. "To pass a budget of this size tonight, without having received or requested input from the public is just plain wrong."

Though the board did not respond publicly to Lund, President Donald Webster said that administrators followed protocols and had just received approval from the Ocean County Superintendent's office this week. Presentations given without that approval could have been inaccurate had that office wanted changes, Webster said.

Wednesday's public hearing also served as an opportunity for the public to give their thoughts, Webster said. Of the about 15 residents in the audience at the hearing, Lund was the only to address the board. 

Lorentzen said that the user-friendly version of the budget and the PowerPoint presentation shown to the public will be posted to the district's website. Those who wish to review the full budget can contact the district's .

Administrators discuss funding, budget components

The district receives about $1.4 million less in aid than it did three years ago, which has changed the way administrators approach the budget. 

The state provides 11 percent of funding for Manchester schools; 2.4 percent of funding comes from the federal government; miscellaneous revenues such as grants make up 5.6 percent. The remaining 81 percent of the budget comes from local taxes. 

With Manchester's median age of 63 years old — the oldest in Ocean County — the school district does not receive much money from the state. 

"What that means as far as the funding formula is we don't get a lot from the state," Trethaway said. "The state translates the large senior population into a richer district."

In comparison, the Toms River Regional school district receives over 30 percent of its funding from the state, according to Trethaway.

"This board has argued, I have argued, as far as the fairness of it," the superintendent said. 

Lorentzen outlined ways in which administrators save money and in some cases generate revenue. 

"The way our district is structured now is completely different than it was three years ago," he said. 

Initiatives such as an energy education program has saved over $1 million over the past two-and-a-half years and is projected to save $6 million over the next 10 years. Solar panels in the high school bring in about $50,000 in energy credits for power sold to the utility, plus save the school about $20,000 in energy costs. Benefits changes in last year's budget saved over $1 million and staff will contribute more under the new budget. 

Trethaway said that fuel costs are a portion of the budget over which the district has no control. With over 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel used each year, even a slight increase in fuel can costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"That's something that's a factor and there's not much we can do," he said. One of the ways to combat the issue is to enter into consortiums with other districts to save money. 

Another hit to the budget came when $225,000 in funding through the federal Educational Jobs Fund was lost this year. 

"Those jobs are still in this budget, but those funds are not there," Lorentzen said.

Looking forward, the district is planning to allocate an additional $453,145 state aid payment received during the 2011-12 school year toward an equipment fund, since upcoming state-mandated testing likely will require the purchase of new computers, Lorentzen said.

"If we are required to have one computer, essentially, for every child in a grade level so they can take a test, we're going to have to start making those purchases this year," Lorentzen said. 

The budget creation process began in October, when each principal from district schools presented their needs for the upcoming year. A and submitted to the county superintendent for approval.