Palmerton Area School District has approved a tentative budget with a 2.8 percent increase in the property tax rate next year.

The school board, on an 8-0 vote on Tuesday, adopted the 2014-15 proposed preliminary general fund budget with a 1.44-mill increase. Director Barry Scherer was absent.If granted final approval, the $28,698,457 spending plan would raise the property tax rate from 51.44 to 52.88 mills.A person whose home is valued at $100,000, and assessed at $50,000, would pay $2,644, or $72 more in property taxes to the district next year.It was recommended that the board adopt next year's proposed preliminary budget with a 1.44-mill increase, the most allowed under state law.The board intends to seek approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, or the Carbon County Court, for all referendum exceptions for which the district qualifies.In addition, the district will work to gather more information in order to refine planned expenditures for the 2014-15 fiscal year, in order to minimize impact to the taxpayers.Projected increases include $158,024 in capital requests; a 6-percent increase in medical insurance; a 4.47-percent increase in Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS); an 11-percent increase in school liability insurance; $112,000 for math, computer applications, and American Cultures textbooks; and a $210,000 rollover for elementary series books, which would come from the fund balance.The biggest expenses appears to be employee wages (37.67 percent), and employee benefits (22.37 percent).Final budget adoption must occur by June 30.Last June, the board adopted the 2013-14 budget with a zero-mill increase, which left the millage rate at 51.44 mills.That meant a person with a home valued at $100,000 and assessed at $50,000 again paid $2,572 in property taxes to the district.Also on Tuesday, business manager Diane Serfass announced that the district will receive a $9,465 check as part of a countywide $75,000 settlement from a now defunct tax agency.The Carbon County Tax Collection Committee , with representatives from every municipality and school district in the county, in November accepted the settlement offer from Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America, the insurance company handling all bond claims against Central Tax Bureau of Pennsylvania, former earned income tax collector.In 2012, Centax was removed as the EIT collector by various counties for its failure to process and distribute earned income taxes.The money is distributed back to the municipalities and school districts according to the weighted vote set up by the state.Also as part of her report, Serfass briefly discussed how Governor Tom Corbett's 2014-15 budget proposal that was released on Tuesday would affect the district.Serfass said that the district's Basic Education funding would remain flat-funded; Special Education funding would receive an increase; and its Accountability Block Grant funding ($115,408) would be rolled over into a Ready to Learn block Grant.In other budgetary matters, the board:Adopted the 2014-15 Lehigh Carbon Community College operating budget in the amount of $156,995, as well as the capital budget in the amount of $57,928.Adopted the 2014-15 Carbon Career & Technical Institute proposed secondary budget, calling for receipts and expenditures in the amount of $7,535,016, to be forwarded as presented to the boards of school directors in each of the participating school districts for final adoption by resolution. The total share for the district is $2,160,739.Adopted the 2014-15 Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit #21 general operating budget in the amount of $2,938,736. The total cost share for the district is $23,128.