The Palmerton Area School Board approved the $31.4 million final budget Tuesday night to a 6-3 vote.

The budget includes a real estate tax increase of 1.72 mills, making the tax levy set at 55.5293 mills.The dissenting votes came from Chuck Myers, vice president of the board; and board members, Barry Scherer and Darlene Yeakel.Myers and Yeakel voted no against the proposed budget in May. Scherer was absent at that meeting.Yeakel said she voted no for the same reason she voted no earlier."I speak for those who weren't able to be here - the senior citizens and struggling families," she said. "And I'm not sure there is enough support for this (turf) field."Yeakel said she would have liked to see an effort made to find one or more benefactors that could have donated toward the cost of the field. If the school district had $500,000 in donations, then that would have been a significant financial assistance for the project.Superintendent Scot Engler said in the workshop meeting on June 7 that the overall cost of the stadium project, including land development, construction and the turf field would be $2.3 million. When the turf needs to be replaced in 15 to 20 years, the cost is about $400,000.In addition to passing the budget, the school board approved transferring $3 million from the general fund to the capital reserve fund. That will leave about $3 million remaining in the fund balance. The vote passed 8-1, with Scherer voting no.According to the 2015-2016 final budget, the school district had a little more than $7 million in the fund balance. Of that, $3.3 million was committed and $2.6 million was assigned and $1.2 million was unassigned.The 2016-2017 proposed budget listed the same $3.3 million in committed funds, $3.1 million in assigned funds, and nothing in unassigned funds for a total of $6,436,100.Health costs increaseAccording to the 2015-2016 budget, the total cost of only employee benefits for instruction, support services, operation and maintenance and student activities was $7,119,321. The specific types of benefits were not broken down.On Tuesday, the school board approved a 9.3 percent increase in the medical insurance rates and a 6.5 percent increase in dental rates. These measures were passed unanimously.Current business manager Ryan Kish said the school district saw health care costs during the 2014-15 school year run above what the district had budgeted.It was "approximately $2,650,000, which was slightly higher than our budgeted amount $2,590,000," Kish said. "For the same time period, we budgeted $150,000 for dental, and the claims came in slightly less at approximately $142,000."