Taxes Stable in O.C. School Budget

By MADDY VITALE The Ocean City Board of Education introduced its budget for the 2024-25 school year with no surprises and no increase in the tax rate. The bulk of the funding for the spending plan would come from $25.3 million in tax revenue, up from $24.9 million in local tax revenue the year before, explained School Business Administrator Tim Kelley in a presentation March 14. The total budget for the 2024-25 school year is $46.2 million, up from $45.2 million for the 2023-24 school year. Using the model of an Ocean City house assessed at $650,000, homeowners would pay $1,294 a year for school taxes and roughly $199 per $100,000 of assessed valuation, representing no change from the prior year, Kelley said. He outlined some areas that played into the fashioning of the budget. “Late last month, we received state aid figures for the upcoming year and we confirmed enrollment and tuition revenues,” Kelley told the school board. According to the budget figures, out-of-district tuition revenue will total $569,695 in 2024-25, compared to $555,571 in 2023-24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlxSq1MeGHQ&feature=youtu.be Video courtesy of Martin Fiedler, Just Right TV Productions In addition to ratables in the community that help offset shortfalls in the school budget, the district learned that it would be receiving more state aid. “Ocean City is receiving an increase of $231,003 in state aid. The lion’s share is related to School Choice Aid of $190,000,” Kelley said. He explained that the state aid figure for the 2024-25 school year increased to $4,760,398, compared to $4,529,295 in the 2023-24 school year. “State aid represents about 10 percent of the budget and the increase lets us increase the budget one half of one percent,” Kelley noted. While state aid is going up, student enrollment is going down. With less tuition revenue due to lower enrollment from the sending districts, it becomes difficult to make up the loss, Kelley emphasized. “As I’ve said in past years, in upcoming years, we have lower enrollment in our sending districts and that will have a direct result in our tuition revenue,” he said. “As tuition revenue goes down, we don’t have the ability to make that up.” Kelley also emphasized the importance of tuition when factoring into the budget. Roughly $12 million in tuition revenue is included in the $46 million dollar budget. And the situation with enrollment does not seem to be changing any time soon, he pointed out. “We project declining enrollment numbers,” he said. Tuition rates are going up while healthcare and salaries are also increasing, creating key factors in the budget. “Salaries overall increased about $770,000, and then health benefits are about a nine to nine and a half percent increase. That equates to almost $822,000,” Kelley said of the figures. The school board approved the budget as it was introduced. It now goes to the state Department of Education and the county for review. On April 25, during the regularly scheduled school board meeting, residents will have the opportunity to speak on the budget and board members can also recommend changes before final approval, Kelley said. For more information about Ocean City schools, visit oceancityschools.org. Paid for by Michael DeVlieger