Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • April 10. 2013 Franklin Lakes K-8 school district adopts $28.9 million budget by Frank J. McMahon The Franklin Lakes K-8 School District has adopted a $28,907,982 budget for the 2013-14 school year which represents a $734,900 or 2.6 percent increase over the 2012-13 total budget. The budget will increase the local school current expense tax levy on property owners by $473,206 from $23,660,306 to $24,133,512, or two percent, which complies with the state’s cap on tax levy increases. The tax levy for servicing the district’s debt that was approved by the voters years ago, however, is also rising from $976,361 to $1,043,949, which will bring the total tax levy up to $25,177,461 and that is a 2.2 percent change over the 2012-13 total tax levy. Michael Solokas, the school district’s business administrator, explained that the state tax levy cap law allows the debt service tax levy to be calculated outside the calculation for the operating budget and that is why the total tax levy will be over the two percent cap. The total tax levy will increase the school district’s tax rate about 1.4 cents to 61.56 cents per $100 of assessed valuation and the tax impact of that rate increase will be about $139 on the owner of a home with the assessed value of $1,033,000, which is considered the average assessed value of a borough home. The tax rate established by the local K-8 school budget is one of several tax rates that contribute to the total tax rate for the borough, which is used to determine each property owner’s tax obligation. The overall tax rate includes the tax rates that support the K-8 district, the regional high school district, the municipality, Bergen County, the Bergen County Open Space program, and the borough library. The total tax rate is often rounded up by the county before it is set as the official tax rate of the borough. The final total tax rate is usually established in July. To determine a property owner’s total property tax obligation, he or she must multiply the total tax rate by the property’s assessed value in hundreds of dollars. Superintendent Frank Romano pointed out during one of several budget presentations to parent organizations that 80 percent of the school district’s budget is the result of the cost of salaries, benefits, and programs. Some major items in the proposed budget are $9,341,600 for regular program instruction, $3,319,000 for special education instruction, $1,005,931 for school administration support services, $2,390,214 for operation and maintenance of plant services, and $5,142,231 for personal services-employee benefits. This budget will provide a fund balance, or surplus, of $641,513. Revenues include $1,650,000 in tuition from 26 students with autism who are expected to attend the district’s CAPS (Children with Autism in Public Schools) program, and 36 students who are expected to join the preschool regular education class from other districts. Revenues also include $712,314 in state and federal aid toward special education and transportation programs. The public will not vote on the school budget this year because the tax levy increase for the operating budget is at the cap set by a state law that permits a school district to avoid a vote on its budget as long as the school board moves its election date to November for at least the next four years and keeps its tax levy increase at or below the tax levy cap, which is currently two percent. In early 2012, the K-8 school board voted 5-4 to move the school district’s annual election of trustees to the date of the general election in November based on that state law. The Horizons Adult Complex will host a bus trip to the Sands Casino in Pennsylvania on Thursday, April 25. The bus will leave at 9:15 a.m. from the Horizons Horizons Adult Complex sponsors trip on Courter Road in Franklin Lakes. The cost is $30. For more information, or to reserve a spot, call Grace at (201) 891-4337.