By MADDY VITALE
The Ocean City Board of Education adopted the 2022-23 school budget on Wednesday night and taxpayers will be pleased to see a decrease in the tax rate.
The total budget for the 2022-23 school year is $43.6 million, up from $42.5 million for the 2021-22 school year.
The bulk of the funding for the spending plan would come from $24.1 million in tax revenue, up from $23.6 million in local tax revenue the year before.
For the owner of a home assessed at $500,000, their school tax bill would be roughly $995 per year. That is an $80 decrease over the 2021-22 school year, according to School Business Administrator Tim Kelley.
During the meeting, Kelley explained that the budget is exactly the same as the one he unveiled in a presentation before the board in March.
“There are no changes to the budget,” he said.
Kelley also noted that the budget, while reducing the tax rate, will provide all of the curriculum, extracurricular activities, and supplies as that of the prior budget. In fact, there are some new and expanded areas as well.
He said within the budget, the district is increasing several learning opportunities. The budget includes expanded high school course offerings, as well as enhanced instructional opportunities.
It also provides for new materials, including textbooks and resources. There will also be improved security measures and more technology offered, among other things.
Kelley noted that the district is decreasing the tax bills while continuing to offer a comprehensive education to the students.
One way the district worked to streamline the budget was to do as many shared services as possible.
“We really like to maximize shared services,” Kelley said. “We use city facilities, the city uses our facilities and it helps all of us.”
He added that the district also uses shared services agreements for areas such as snow removal, field usage and use of facilities.
When the budget was introduced in March, Kelley gave a presentation and detailed the way that the district was able to present a decrease in the tax rate for the upcoming school year.
The adopted budget will decrease the school tax rate by an estimated 7.4 percent or 1.6 cents.
“The reduction is attributable to the payoff of bonds for the construction of Ocean City High School as well as an increase in local city ratables,” Kelley said in March, adding that the high school was recently paid off.
Last year, despite adverse economic impacts for businesses during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the school district was able to bring forth a budget without an increase to the tax rate.
Kelley had said that the district was able to provide a zero-tax increase to the taxpayers because of the increase in home values. The total assessed valuation for Ocean City property increased from $11.9 billion in 2020-21 to $12.1 billion for 2021-22.
