West Windsor Town Meeting and annual school meeting is on Tuesday, March 7, at 9 a.m. in Story Memorial Hall.
West Windsor
If voters at Town Meeting pass the proposed $2.75 million school budget, which decreases equalized per pupil spending by 7.5 percent, the homestead education rate is estimated to drop 30 cents to around $1.59 per $100 of assessed valuation.
“For us it has to do with lower costs for special education because of the new formula and also this year we got a break on tuition (for grades 7-12),” School Board Chairwoman Elizabeth Burrows said. “The budget is pretty much flat and we kept spending under the (state) cap,” avoiding a penalty.
There also is a fund balance from the last fiscal year that ended June 30 of about $99,000 and the town’s common level of appraisal is at 106 percent, which further helps reduce the tax rate. The CLA is a statewide formula designed to adjust local tax rates to ensure equality in valuations across the state
“Basically the same things that worked against us last year, have worked for us this year,” Burrows said.
With 15 West Windsor students graduating from high school this year and only five seventh graders next school year, tuition costs are projected to drop about $100,000. But the line item reduction is only $14,500, with the rest being kept in the budget for a “cushion” in case new students come into the district, school officials said.
Special education is calculated on an equalized per pupil basis this year, not average daily enrollment, and the costs are more evenly spread among the Supervisory Union’s four towns so if one of the districts gets hit with a large special education expense, that cost is borne by all the districts. Also, the districts are assessed the net amount for special education after the supervisory union, which handles special education, deducts expenses that are covered by federal reimbursements.
On the Town Meeting warning is an article to borrow $275,000 over five years for the purchase of a new fire truck.
“We need to replace one of the older trucks and we decided to go forward with that this year,” Selectboard Chairman Richard Beatty said.
The proposed budget, combining both highway and general fund, of $1.22 million is $44,000 or 3.7 percent above what was approved last year.
“The increase is general for the cost of doing town business,” Beatty said. “It is not going up by much as we worked to keep it down as much as we can.”
The amount to be raised by taxes is up $19,000 and a combined $50,000 from a highway budget surplus and reserve fund is being applied to cover expenses with the remainder from other non-tax sources.
If voters pass all appropriations for the town, the town rate is expected to increase 5 cents to 48 cent per $100 of assessed valuation.
Approval of all town and school spending would result in a projected decrease of 25 cents on the homestead tax rate, bringing it to just under $2.08 per $100 of assessed valuation and reducing taxes on a $250,000 home by $624 to $5,193.
Town and school officers are nominated and elected from the floor. Tom Kenyon, Selectboard, and William Yates, School Board, are among the seats up for re-election.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
