The proposed Mohawk Central School District budget is now in the hands of the voters.
The district’s Board of Education held its annual public hearing regarding the 2008-09 school year budget on Tuesday night. No voting members of the public attended.
The budget adds up to $13,386,629, up $626,054 from last year’s, which equates to a 4.91 percent increase.
The district’s tax levy projection is based on current state aid figures and will make up $3.459 million, a 3.29 percent increase.
The money collected from taxes is one of four different revenue sources for this budget, with the other three being state aid, which equals $9.349 million, a fund balance of $150,000, and around $365,000 from interest and other revenues.
Business Manager Charles Mower said the district lost about $8,000 from previously projected state aid figures.
“We knew the original projection was off by $8,000 so we took that into consideration,” said Mower.
Major increases in the budget include approximately $307,000 in payroll increases, $67,000 in fringe benefits, $103,000 for debt service and $141,000 in Herkimer BOCES expenditures.
Superintendent Joyce Caputo asked how a drop in funding from a state grant funded Reading First program could have on the overall budget. The district is currently in the third year of reading program.
Mower said funding from other parts of the budget will have to be used to help the reading program.
“Only in New York can a grant be an unfunded mandate,” said board member Vincent Casale.
The board plans to look at how the decrease in funding will affect the program at its next meeting on May 20.
The public vote on the budget is on May 20 from noon to 8 p.m. at Gregory B. Jarvis Junior-Senior High School.