Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • May 14, 2014 FLOW Area Trustees approve district’s $52.7 million budget by Frank J. McMahon The Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education has adopted a $52,764,553 budget for the 2014-15 academic year that is $1,727,282 or 3.39 percent higher than the school district’s 2013-14 school budget. The new budget will require a tax levy of $47,272,946 for 2014-15, which is $1,221,312 or 2.65 percent higher than the 2013-14 school budget. Frank Ceurvels, the school district’s business admin- istrator, explained that the two percent tax levy cap was exceeded this year in order to fund the school district’s share of the cost of the masonry project at Ramapo High School by using $691,320 of the $2,369,993 in the banked cap fund to cover the local district’s share of that project. “By raising those additional funds we’ll also get a state grant of about $460,000,” Ceurvels said. The budget allocates $691,320 of the district’s banked cap money for the project at Ramapo High School and there is $1,159,200 in the budget for the masonry project at Indian Hills High School. The tax impact of the school district’s increased tax levy will raise Wyckoff’s property tax rate by 0.0053 cents to 38.37 cents. This will cost the owner of a home with Wyckoff’s average assessed value of $812,200 an additional $43 annually, for a total of $3116. Wyckoff’s 2014 tax assessment has not been finalized so the 2013 figures were used for this calculation. The increased tax levy will raise Oakland’s prop- erty tax rate by 0.0227 cents to 49 cents and will cost the owner of a home with Oakland’s average assessed value of $409,800 an additional $93 annually, for a total of $1,988. In Franklin Lakes, the budget will increase the property tax rate by 0.0088 cents to 44.36 cents. This change will cost the owner of a home with the borough’s $1,036,100 average assessed value an additional $91 annually, for a total of $4,596. The regional high school tax must be added to the (continued on page 22) Budget shows 20 percent decrease The Franklin Lakes K-8 Board of Education unani- mously adopted its 2014 budget at the April 29 public meeting. According to Michael Solokas, the school district’s business administrator, the $28,849,313 total budget is $58,669, or 20 percent, lower than the previous year’s budget primarily due to a $23,735 decrease in the school district’s debt service cost and special revenue funds of $65,084 which offset the general fund increase of $30,140. The total tax levy as a result of this budget will be $25,177,461, which is the same as the previous year after a $965,256 decrease in the tax levy required for debt ser- vice. That will result in a tax rate of 61.2 cents, which is slightly less than last year. That tax rate decrease, which amounts to a little more than three tenths of a cent, will result in a decrease of $32.60 on a home in Franklin Lakes with the average assessed value of $1,036,100. The tax rate established by the local K-8 school budget, and resulting tax levy, is just one of several tax rates that contribute to the total tax rate for a borough property owner. The total tax rate is used to determine each prop- erty owner’s tax obligation. The tax rate for the local K-8 school district must be combined with the regional high school tax rate, the municipal tax rate, the Bergen County tax rate, the Bergen County Open Space tax rate, and the borough library tax rate, to form a property owner’s total tax rate, which is often rounded up by the county before it is set as the offi- cial tax rate of the borough. That final total tax rate, usually established in July each year after the Bergen County budget is approved, (continued on page 29)