On Tuesday, May 7, the Mars Area School District’s board was presented with a proposed budget for 2024-25 school year that included a 3.474 millage tax increase. The proposed budget of $62,725,076 is a $3,836,632 increase from the previous year, which equates to a 6% increase, and includes a “conservative” deficit of $954,000.

Debbie Brandstetter, business manager for the district, detailed the proposed budget to the school board. The board will vote on the budget at their next meeting on Tuesday, May 14.

The suggested millage increase would bring the millage rate from 105.526 to 109.00 for 2024-25.

The tax increase, according to Brandstetter, would be used to fund debt service payments and cover more than half of the increase in health care premiums, which will increase by 20.68% for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

“We’re going to do a targeted tax increase and we’re going to use 1.474 mills to help offset the (health care increase),” Brandstetter said. “About $473,000 of that increase would be covered with the tax.”

Real estate taxes are expected to bring in $32,931,755, which is 53% of the district’s projected revenue — a $1,682,175 increase from the prior year.

The proposed budget included an estimated $2,415,760 increase in local funding compared to last year, bringing the total to $45,125,641 for 2024-25 school year.

State income sources are also expected to rise from last year, as the proposed budget showed a $727,427 increase compared to the year before, bringing that total to $16,496,239.

In contrast, the federal funding sources are projected to be $174,750 less than last year, bringing that projected total to $150,000.

Brandstetter said the revenues for 2024-25 were conservative projections, using just a 4% local revenue increase compared to the five-year average growth which is at a 6.8%.

“Often times revenues continue to come in,” she said. “Especially earned income tax revenue, (which can) come in well above our projections,” she said.

Any additional moneys would be added to the fund balance, according to Brandstetter.

Brandstetter said the leading cause for this year’s deficit was vacant positions that need to be filled paired with an increase in starting salaries.

“This year we have 10 vacant custodial positions, 10 (paraprofessional) positions and we’ve increased starting salaries,” Brandstetter said. “We’ve got some people in but we still have 20 vacant positions.”

The budget also accounts for contingency factors such as substitute services, nursing services and additional bus runs due to an increase of student enrollment.

“More than likely they are in the budget because contractually the positions need to be in budget,” she said. “We want to put money in the budget for those bus runs just in case we need it for the enrollment growth. I’d rather have it in there than not have it there.”