A preliminary budget approved by Panther Valley School Board on Wednesday includes a slight tax hike for the forthcoming fiscal year.

Approved by an 8-1 vote, the budget calls for taxes to be increased by 1.3955 mills for Carbon County residents and over one-fourth of a mill (0.2587) in Coaldale, which is in Schuylkill County.

The lone negative vote on the spending plan was board member Ryan Eidle.

The current millage in Carbon County is 66.44 mills. The new rate — if passed — would be 67.8355 mills.

In Coaldale, the current millage is 12.3143 due to the recent reassessment. The new millage rate would be 12.5730 mills.

Panther Valley business manager Gregory Gauronsky said property owners in Lansford, Summit Hill and Nesquehoning would see their school tax bill increase by an average of $31.05, while in Coaldale the increase would amount to an average of $23.77.

The general fund budget is based on proposed expenditures of $45,576,240.

Gauronsky said the general fund will have approximately $5.7 million in its fund balance at the end of the fiscal year.

In other business, board members Kim Laird and Anthony DeMarco recently traveled to Harrisburg and discussed the school district with state Sen. David Argall and state Rep. Doyle Heffley. Laird is the legislative/Pennsylvania School Board Association liaison for the board.

Laird said they made the “needs of our district known” to the two state officials.

They also talked to Argall and Heffley about cyber schools and their financial impact on the district, infrastructure needs in the school district and the disruptions of state testing of students. Of the latter topic, she said testing requires approximately nine full days of the school year, which is a lot of classroom time to miss.