BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

JACKSON - A recent refinancing of district bonds and a smaller increase in the anticipated rising cost of health benefits will save the Jackson School District $1.1 million.

The refinancing of debt and cost-saving measures in the area of health benefits will allow the Board of Education to accept a final 2006-07 school budget with reductions that will not negatively impact students or programs.

The budget for the 2006-07 school year will total $126 million. Jackson property owners will pay $60 million of that total in local property taxes, with the remainder coming from other sources of revenue. The school tax rate will increase by 13.94 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, or an increase of $278 to the owner of a home assessed at $200,000.

The budget includes operating costs associated with the planned September opening of Jackson's second public high school, Jackson Liberty High School. There will be freshman and sophomore classes in the building when it opens.

"When the [proposed $127.1 million] budget was defeated on April 18, we searched for areas that could be altered to meet the mandate from the voters and the recommendations from the Township Committee," board President Linda Lackay said at a May 30 meeting. "In the end, there were two areas we were able to revise due to market conditions and negotiations."

Under the final budget approved by the board, the general fund tax levy, which is the amount to be raised by taxation, has been reduced by $1,134,798, to $60 million. This is the total amount of reductions recommended by the Township Committee, which reviewed the school budget following the voters' rejection of the original $61.1 million tax levy.

"When we sat down with the representatives from the committee, we agreed that the amount being recommended for the reduction was a reasonable amount given the wishes of the voters and our economic reality," Lackay said.

The tax levy reductions are comprised of a $600,000 increase to the revenue side of the budget as a result of a recent refinancing of the district's debt, and a $534,798 reduction to the health benefits line item on the expense side of the budget as a result of contract negotiations, according to information provided by the board.

The cost containment caps in the areas of health benefits include requiring higher co-pays for health care and prescription medication as well as changing some of the eligibility requirements for health benefits, Lackay said.

"While our health insurance costs are certainly rising, just like the rest of the country, the provisions established in recent negotiations mean they are rising less dramatically than we originally anticipated," she said. "In the end we're saving more than $500,000 in this area alone, which makes a big difference."

Lackay said the recent refinancing of some of the district's bonds, which will net a savings of slightly more than $600,000, is another reason the board can make budget adjustments without tapping into programs or staff.

"The key for us and the Township Committee when it made its recommendations was to be responsible to the taxpayer without hurting the students," the board president said. "Through these measures, I think we have done that."