Jim Thorpe Area School District will use reserve funds to balance its 2019-20 budget with no property tax increase.

For the seventh straight year, the district’s property tax will be 45.52 mills. The tax bill for a property assessed at $50,000 will remain at $2,276.

School district officials voted to adopt a proposed final budget at their May meeting.

Final adoption is scheduled for 7 p.m. June 12.

The budget includes $46,762,484 in expenses, a 1 percent increase over 2018-19.

The district anticipates it will take in $43,854,511 in revenue, so they expect to use about $2.9 million from its fund balance, which totals between $10 million and $11 million as of the end of this school year.

“Despite the popular myth that floats around, we have not increased taxes since 2013. Since 2012, we have only raised them once,” said Lauren Kovac, business manager for the school district.

Salaries and benefits make up $28,379,074 of the budget.

On the revenue side, $32,764,635 comes from local revenue sources — primarily property taxes. The state provides a total of $10,504,876, and the federal government $585,000.

Kovac said during a recent presentation that Jim Thorpe receives $4 million in basic education funding from the state, which is less than any other district in Carbon County. If you include all the counties which surround Carbon, there are only three school districts which receive less basic education funding than Jim Thorpe.

“Of the 500 school districts which receive funding, we’re 431, we’re down at the bottom,” Kovac said.

The district has seen increases in its costs for pensions, health care and cyber schools.

The amount it has to pay to cover contributions to the Pennsylvania State Employees Retirement System is about $5.3 million.

“If the state would be willing to contribute more, the burden would fall off the districts and you as real estate taxpayers. Obviously the state would make it up in other ways,” she said.

The district has budgeted $1.7 million for tuition at charter and cyber charter schools.

“As a parent, it’s free for you to send your child there, but as a taxpayer, it’s most definitely not free,” she said.

Kovac explained that all but $1.7 million of the budget is basically set before the school board even begins the budget process.

Approximately $42.2 million is determined by contracts — including salaries, benefits, bonds, tuition and utilities.

Another $2.8 million goes toward wages for nonunion staff.

The majority of the budget — about $42 million — is determined by contracts.

Kovac said the district’s fund balance has allowed the district to weather difficult times like the 2015-16 state budget impasse where school districts couldn’t receive state funding for nine months.

But she said it’s not a permanent solution to the district’s budget deficit.

“Over the next several years we will need to make decisions regarding the financial direction our district is heading and prioritize what is important to the board, the community and our students,” Kovac said.