May 24, 2016 3 min read

When Washington School District mails its property tax bills around July 1, home and business owners will be seeing a 2-mill increase.

The board adopted a $26,860,048 general fund budget by a vote of 7-0 Monday night.

Board member Jeffrey Fine was absent and Director John Campbell left before the vote was taken.

The budget is about $615,000 more than this year.

The 2-mill increase brings the tax levy in the district, which includes the city of Washington and East Washington Borough, to 135 mills.

Washington School District business manager Rick Mancini said Tuesday the average home in the district is assessed for tax purposes at $9,788. The 2-mill increase means a tax increase of $19.58.

At the same time, the Homestead Exemption is increasing to $461 per homeowner from a previous $450, resulting in an $11 increase in credit and making the net tax increase on the average home $8.58 “or about 72 cents a month,” Mancini said. “If your home is assessed more, obviously, it’s higher, and if your home is assessed at less than $9,788, it will be a smaller amount, but this is the average assessment.”

The increase is expected to bring in $120,000 in additional revenue.

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, but the district, where enrollment is about 1,500, is receiving larger state subsidies than it anticipated several months ago when it projected a millage increase of 5.5.

In a related matter, Director Robert Wicker was re-elected board treasurer for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The board also extended its contract with the Nutrition Group through the 2016-17 school year at the previous rate of $27,000 for administration and $23,000 to manage school district employees.

Also by a vote of 7-0, the board agreed to contribute to the Washington Drug and Alcohol Commission to share the cost of a facilitator working to educate through cyber-schooling incarcerated youth at an annual cost of $10,000 per year, renewable annually. Washington School District is required to provide educational services to any inmate under the age of 21 who wants to pursue a high school diploma. In turn, the district will be reimbursed from student’s home district based on residency before incarceration.

During public comment, parent Pam Kilgore thanked gifted support teacher and art educator Debbie Mainwaring, who is retiring at the end of this school year, for outstanding work.

The next voting meeting will be a work session scheduled for 6:30 p.m. June 6 in the high school cafeteria. Canceled are the June 20 and July 18 regular meetings.