Jun 22, 2016 2 min read

Chartiers-Houston School Board on Monday approved a 2016-17 district budget that includes a 3-mill increase in real estate taxes.

The new rate is projected to generate an additional $197,628 for the $18.2 million spending plan, which also calls for using $309,043 in reserve funds. The budget doesn’t include any employee furloughs or program cuts, business manager Don Bennett said.

The millage rate will be 125.0125 next year. Bennett said the increase means an additional $54 on the tax bill for the average district home assessed for tax purposes at $12,804.

Next year’s budget is $434,782 larger than this year’s. Almost all of that amount comes from increases in its state-mandated contribution into the system that funds pensions for public school workers.

Bennett said he recommends the board increase property taxes gradually each year to cover growing pension cost obligations to avoid larger increases in millage.

The 3-mill tax increase is below Chartiers-Houston’s Act 1 index, a state-set limit on how much a school district can increase property taxes without special permission from the Department of Education or directly from voters in a ballot referendum.

“My philosophy is, unless additional state funding comes about, that each year we raise the millage rate below the index,” Bennett said.

State revenue makes up 40 to 50 percent of the Chartiers-Houston budget, he said.

District homeowners who apply for the homestead or farmstead exclusion receive $123 in state property tax relief, according to Bennett.

Chartiers-Houston has 1,080 students.