Despite two new employee contracts, and increased pension costs, Jim Thorpe Area School Board plans to hold the line on taxes for 2016-17.

The board passed its proposed final 2016-17 budget Monday night by an 8-1 vote. Gerald Strubinger voted against it.The board will have a final vote on the spending plan June 13.“That’s the third straight year, and fourth of the last five, with no tax increase,” board chairman Michael Principe said.The school property tax rate would remain at 45.52 mills.The spending plan includes $42,171,456 in expenses. That is approximately $1.2 million more than what the board proposed in this year’s budget.To balance the budget, the school board had to take $2 million from its fund balance. Officials said that the balance would be about $13 million after the withdraw.The increased expenses came primarily from an increase in the district’s state-mandated pension contribution, and two new contracts with labor unions representing district employees.The district’s contribution to the state employees retirement fund — a number that board members have no control over, increased by $774,225, business manager Lauren Kovac said.The district also approved new contracts with the Jim Thorpe Education Association and its Act 93 administrators since its last budget was passed. The result was an increase in salaries, but also that health care costs grew at a slower rate than they would have without the new contracts in place. Kovac said that health care costs only went up by about 1 percent, while other districts are seeing theirs go up by 7-8 percent this year.Strubinger was the lone no vote. Before the vote, he criticized Kovac for overestimating expenses and underestimating revenue in the district’s preliminary budget.“We have always come up with fund balances when you ask for millage increases,” Strubinger said.“I have never given you information that is not accurate. I take offense to the fact that you would say that,” Kovac responded.Board member Clement McGinley disputed Strubinger’s take on the budget, saying that the board’s most recent audit found that Kovac had accurately predicted the district’s anticipated revenue and expenses to within one percent.Strubinger has consistently advocated for the board to lower the property tax rate. After the budget passed, he proposed a motion to lower the 2016-17 rate by 1.5 mills, but no other board members supported it.