Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
While the price of nearly everything is going up, the Bristol Township School Board voted late last month to keep the tax rate steady.
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The school board voted 8-1 to keep the millage rate 220.14. The median school tax bill for Bristol Township homeowners will remain about $3,877.
The school board voted unanimously to approve the $148,727,120 million spending plan for 2022-2023. The new budget marks a less than 1 percent increase over spending in the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
School Board President James Morgan highlighted that it was the fourth year the school board didn’t hike taxes after years of increases.
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The Bristol Township School District expects there to be a slight increase in funding from tax revenue, Pennsylvania, and the federal government. A total of 64 percent of the district’s funding comes through local taxes.
Salaries and employee benefits are the largest portion of the district’s budget, coming in at $91.6 million.
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In a budget presentation in spring, Josh Sweigard, the district’s business manager, said the largest increases the district has been seeing in costs are charter schools and debt service due to the renovation of the Ben Franklin School.
The budget presentation showed charter school costs rising from about $3 million in the 2011-2012 school year to an expected roughly $9 million for 2022-2023.
The district will see health care costs decrease by 3.7 percent in the current fiscal year and a slight increase in state contributions to pensions.
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In the last fiscal year, the district came in about $2.3 million under budget and didn’t have to pull from the existing fund balance.
According to district budgeting documents and county tax records, the Bristol Township School District has the second highest school tax millage rate, but the third lowest school district average tax bill in the county because the tax bill figure is based on assessed value of structures.
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In the coming years, the district expects expenditures to outpace revenues, which would lead to budget gaps that would have to be filled.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to note the budget was approved unanimously and one school board member voted against keeping the tax rate the same. A previous version noted they were all approved unanimously.
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