STUART — In an often tense meeting between staff and board members, the Martin County School Board discussed today a proposed budget that would eliminate five librarian positions, reduce holiday pay for administrators, and rely heavily on federal stimulus dollars and district reserves in order to balance.

“You’ve got no wiggle room,” Mike Bookman, a budget consultant, told board members.

The proposed budget of about $283.3 million is about about 2.6 percent less than last year, the result of a drop in property taxes and state cuts to education. A deficit of about $9.8 million would be plugged primarily with $6.2 million in stimulus money.

The budget year began July 1.

Several board members questioned the numbers presented, asking how, about a month after the last meeting, it had gone from an $8 million deficit to being balanced.

“It just went poof?” School Board Chairwoman Lorie Shekailo asked of the $8 million. “I know better than anybody that a budget is fluid, but this is a little too fluid.”

Much of the district’s reserves were used to close out last year and to balance the coming year’s budget, Bookman said.

School officials proposed a property tax rate is $6.70 for every $1,000 of assessed value, up about 7.3 percent from last year. The state, not local officials, sets the property tax rate for schools.

For some with a homestead exemption, taxes could go up slightly this year because the Save Our Homes amendment requires an increase of 0.1 percent in assessed property value this year, unless the home’s market value has dipped below the assessed value.

The owner of a home assessed at $250,000 with a $25,000 homestead exemption paid about $1,406.70 in taxes in 2008-2009. School district taxes use a $25,000 homestead exemption rather than the $50,000 exemption voters approved with Amendment 1.

In 2009-2010, a 0.1-percent property value increase would boost the homeowner’s tax bill to about $1,509.40. That’s an increase of about $102.70.

The school district tax bill doesn’t include county or municipal taxes, or levies from special taxing districts.

School board members will meet at 5:05 p.m. Tuesday at the district offices to vote on the proposed budget and tax rate. Final approval is scheduled for Sept. 8.

Tags: Martin County, Schools, Stuart

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 7:03 pm and is filed under Martin County, Schools, Stuart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.