The 2019-20 budget tax hike for Northampton Area School District property owners is expected to be lowered. In a straw vote at the May 20 NASD Board of Education meeting, the tally was 8-0, with one school director absent, to lower the proposed tax hike to 1.97 percent, or an increase of 1.06 mills, from 53.83 mills to 54.89 mills.

Based on the 2018 average NASD residential property assessment of $59,444, which comprises 70 percent of the district, and a 2018-19 tax bill of $3,199.87, the new bill would be $3,263.48. The average tax bill would rise $63.61 annually, $5.30 monthly and $1.02 weekly.

The lower tax hike is achieved with no cuts in staff or programs, according to NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik.

“All positions are intact. No one is getting furloughed. All programs are intact,” Kovalchik said. “We feel we can comfortably manage with the 1.97 percent.”

The 1.97-percent tax hike would keep the increase below the Pennsylvania Department of Education 2019-20 Act 1 Index for NASD of 2.8 percent.

Despite the lower tax hike percentage, the proposed 2019-20 general fund budget still includes hiring a guidance counselor and a math teacher, both new positions, at Northampton Area High School, and a guidance counselor, which is not a new position but a replacement, at Northampton Area Middle School.

The 1.97-percent tax hike was one of three options in the straw poll at the May 20 board meeting.

After the May 20 meeting, school board President David Gogel was exuberant.

“I predicted we would lower the tax hike percentage some more,” he said.

Gogel and school Director Roy Maranki voted against the 2.69-percent tax hike at the May 8 meeting.

The other two options in the May 20 straw poll were tax hike percentages of 2.27 percent and 2.69 percent. The latter was the tax hike percentage approved by the school board at its May 8 meeting.

The 2.69-percent tax hike would have resulted in a 1.45-mill increase from 53.83 mills to 55.28 mills. Based on the 2018 average assessment of $59,444 and a 2018-19 tax bill of $3,199.87, the new tax bill would have been $3,286.06. That would have been an $86.19 annual increase, $7.18 monthly increase and $1.66 weekly increase.

The 2.27-percent tax hike would have resulted in a 1.22-mill increase from 53.83 mills to 55.05 mills. Based on the 2018 average assessment of $59,444 and a 2018-19 tax bill of $3,199.87, the new tax bill would have been $3,272.39. That would have been a $72.52 annual increase, $6.04 monthly increase and $1.39 weekly increase.

“Just because you approved the budget, we said it doesn’t have to be the final budget,” Kovalchik explained. “After the last meeting, we’ve had some savings.”

Kovalchik said the NASD administration reduced the tax hike percentage because of lower-than-expected district employee health care costs and an expected increase in education funding in Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed budget.

The health care cost savings is expected to be $182,660, Kovalchik said.

The PDE funding is expected to increase $277,155, but it could increase by as much as $366,285, according to Kovalchik and NASD Business Administrator Terry Leh.

Kovalchik and Leh said district health care cost savings were determined last week during an in-house re-evaluation of the 2019-20 budget.

When asked what the likelihood of the health care cost savings is, Leh said, “I think we’re going to realize it.”

Kovalchik said district employees’ health care cost savings were because of lower health care claims and because some district employees chose to be covered by a spouse’s health care plan rather that the district’s health care plan.

“We did an analysis of our health care costs,” Leh explained.

If the PDE increase is more than $277,155, Kovalchik said, “the rest would go into the fund balance.”

The PDE increase is in addition to $4,105,979 in basic education funding and $2,957,091 in special education funding already calculated in the 2019-20 NASD budget. Leh said he factored into the NASD budget a 1-percent increase in PDE funding.

After the meeting, Kovalchik said he and Leh trimmed the 2019-20 general fund budget by about $1 million since its introduction in January.

“We continued scrutinizing the budget,” Kovalchik said.

“I’d like to thank Joe and Terry in this budget process,” said school Director John Becker.

“Matt’s been helping, too,” said Leh of Matthew Sawarynski, NASD assistant business administrator, who will succeed Leh when he retires in June.

When the 2019-20 general fund budget was introduced by Kovalchik and Leh at the Jan. 14 board of education meeting, it carried a 3.79-percent tax hike.

Factors Leh and Kovalchik cited to achieve reductions included local revenue increases in real estate and Access funds, which reduced the budget by $411,000. Ten professional staff retirements were replaced, reducing the budget by $389,000. Administrative building and department reductions of 10 percent helped reduce the budget by $356,400.

The budget includes the PDE-mandated positions of one special education teacher at the high school, middle school and elementary school levels, funded through Access, and one high school guidance counselor.

In addition to the tax increase, the district would use $3,420,000 from the district fund balance to balance the 2019-20 budget.

The administration and school board timetable for the 2019-20 general fund budget is to adopt the final budget at the next school board meeting, 6:30 p.m. June 10 at the administration building, 2014 Laubach Ave., Northampton. School district budgets are required by commonwealth law to be approved by June 30.

At the May 6 meeting, the 2019-20 proposed general fund budget was approved by a vote of 7-2 by the NASD board. The proposed general fund budget is $110,527,281. The athletic fund is $251,935, and the food services fund is $2,414,163.

The proposed 2019-20 NASD budget can be reviewed at nasdschools.org/domain/13.