By AUBRIE GEORGE
With school budget season around the corner, the Moorestown Township Public School District faces difficult challenges for the 2011–12 school year including a $2 million deficit.
District officials anticipate that the 2011–12 budget will be $1.5 to $2 million greater than the 2010–11 budget when all personnel, benefits and other expenses are factored in.
However, ongoing contract negotiations between the Board and the Moorestown Education Association will affect the budget. Officials are not yet sure of the impact.
“Obviously we don’t know what the salaries are for this year let alone next year,” Lynn Shugars, the district’s business administrator, said. “We’ve made modest estimates just for budgeting purposes.”
Salaries make up 66 percent of the school budget, and benefits make up 16 percent. Other expenses count for the remaining 18 percent.
The district has suffered a cumulative $3.3 million loss in state aid since 2008.
Last year, the district received $1.5 million in state aid money to fund the budget, and officials anticipate that funding will remain at that level for the approaching school year.
Actual state aid numbers won’t be released until late February 2011.
The Board is faced with a depleted surplus this year of about $500,000 due to the fact that about $2.6 million of surplus funds were used to offset the 2010–11 budget.
Since Gov. Christie implemented a new tax levy cap for the approaching budget, the Board would only be able to increase the amount to be raised through taxes by 2 percent as opposed to the former 4 percent levy cap.
“That’s the maximum increase the Board would be able to consider,” Shugars said.
Increasing the levy to the full 2 percent cap would mean a school tax increase to the average homeowner of $107.
A 2 percent increase would yield an approximately $1 million in additional revenue, which would be offset by an approximate $307,000 reduction in debt service funds.
This would produce a net tax dollar increase of about $755,000 — not enough to fund the anticipated shortfall.
Officials note that the Board hasn’t raised the levy to cap since 2007–2008.
There was a less than 1 percent decrease in the levy in the 2009–10 budget.
The Board implemented a 1.2 percent increase for the 2010–11 budget.
With difficult decisions likely on the horizon, officials said all areas of the budget are currently being evaluated for cost-efficiencies.
Shugars stressed that the current numbers are “very preliminary.”
“In late February we’ll have more concrete ideas about what our budget is going to look like,” she said.
The initial 2011–12 school budget is due to the county on March 4.
