Budget and Tax History

Yearly budgets are usually presented in relation to the previous year.  While the rate of change can be volatile year to year, overall longer trends can give a better picture of what a budget is really doing.

For example, big changes in a given line item from a previous year can get shadowed by a small change in the current year.  Looking at a multi-year history of that line item would tell a more complete story.

We like to include our budget and tax history in all budget conversations to be as transparent as possible.  The trends are clearly visible.  Below is our history, including the proposed budget and projected tax rates.  Tax rates for FY'16 are based on actual data for all variables except base tax rate (estimated to be +2 cents by the state) and the base education amount.  Those values will be available in the spring.  

Year over year, the budget change has averaged -0.33% for each of the last six years.  

Increases to the tax rates during recent years are directly attributed to our decreasing student population and the higher state base tax rates.  Local tax burden is determined not by our total spending, but instead our total spending per pupil.  As pupils decrease, spending per pupil for the remaining students increases.  

As the last of the baby boomer's children are graduating high school, we're seeing outgoing classes that are larger than incoming classes.  That has turned into a drop of -3.5% per year in students for us, driven by high school graduation.  Incoming elementary classes are stable or growing slightly.  

Based on population and birth rate predictions, we have several more years of decreasing preK-12 enrollment to prepare for.