May 11, 2016 2 min read

Washington School District officials are considering raising property taxes by two mills in the 2016-17 budget.

The increase would mean about $16 more a year on the tax bill for a home assessed at the district median, according to the budget documents.

The school tax bill for the median district homeowner is $1,048 this year, but those who receive the homestead exemption of $450 pay $598.

The median home in Washington is assessed at $7,877, which is one-fourth of the 1981 market value.

District Director of Operations Rick Mancini said the tax increase, from 133 to 135 mills, will boost revenue by about $120,000.

The plan projects total spending of $26.9 million next year – about $615,000 more than this year – in the district of roughly 1,500 students.

The school board will vote on the final budget at its next meeting on May 23, he said.

Most of the budget boost comes from a state-mandated increase in contributions into the retirement system for school workers.

For Washington, the contribution increased by $400,000.

Mancini also expects the cost of providing employee health care to increase by about $150,000.

“If we could take out retirement and health-care (increases), next year’s budget would look pretty much like this year’s,” he said.

The plan doesn’t include any furloughs of staff.

The preliminary budget passed by the board in January called for a 5.5-mill tax increase.

The board took that step so district officials could apply for permission from the Department of Education to raise taxes beyond the limit under Act 1, which sets rules for distributing state gaming revenue to homeowners.

Mancini said the district doesn’t have to raise property taxes as much as initially expected “because of the increases that we’re getting in state subsidies for this year.”