By Peter Elacqua
Staff Writer
The Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education has adopted a $201.9 million budget for the 2017-18 school year that will be supported by the collection of a combined $135.75 million in taxes from residential and commercial property owners in the district’s eight sending municipalities.
Taxpayers in seven of the eight municipalities will see an increase in the amount they pay in taxes to operate the district. Taxpayers in Freehold Township will see a decrease.
The board provided the tax levy that property owners in each municipality will pay during 2017-18:
• Colts Neck: $13.96 million tax levy for 2017-18, up from $13.1 million for 2016-17. The tax rate has increased from 43.87 cents to 46.51 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The average home assessment is $843,743 and that individual will pay $3,924 in FRHSD taxes ($223 increase).
• Englishtown: $1 million tax levy for 2017-18, up from $919,169 for 2016-17. The tax rate has increased from 38.21 cents to 41.47 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at $300,000 will pay $1,244 in FRHSD taxes ($98 increase).
• Farmingdale: $541,919 tax levy for 2017-18, up from $506,587 for 2016-17. The tax rate has increased from 32.88 cents to 34.81 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at $300,000 will pay $1,044 in FRHSD taxes ($58 increase).
• Freehold Borough: $3.6 million tax levy for 2017-18, up from $3.31 million for 2016-17. The tax rate has increased from 32.16 cents to 34.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at $250,000 will pay $863 in FRHSD taxes ($59 increase).
• Freehold Township: $28.21 million tax levy for 2017-18, down from $29.28 million for 2016-17. The tax rate has decreased from 48.45 cents to 45.71 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The average home assessment is $388,672 and that individual will pay $1,776 in FRHSD taxes ($107 decrease).
• Howell: $28.99 million tax levy for 2017-18, up from $27.54 million for 2016-17. The tax rate has increased from 43.26 cents to 43.51 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The average home assessment is $332,528 and that individual will pay $1,446 in FRHSD taxes ($8 increase).
• Manalapan: $26.7 million tax levy for 2017-18, up from $26.06 million for 2016-17. The tax rate has increased from 41.36 cents to 41.72 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at $400,000 will pay $1,668 in FRHSD taxes ($14 increase).
• Marlboro, $32.73 million tax levy for 2017-18, up from $31.52 million for 2016-17. The tax rate has increased from 43.99 cents to 45.58 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The average home assessment is $494,179 and that individual will pay $2,252 in FRHSD taxes ($79 increase).
The high school district’s 2016-17 budget totaled $207.3 million and was supported by a tax levy of $132.32 million, according to the board.
Assistant Superintendent for Business Sean Boyce said, “The 2016-17 budget provided $5.4 million for various capital projects, including a turf field and running track replacement at Howell High School. By contrast, the 2017-18 spending plan does not include any capital projects. On a comparable basis, the district’s 2017-18 budget represents an increase of approximately 1 percent over the current year.”
Boyce said the amount of money property owners pay to support the six high schools in the district will increase by $3.43 million from 2016-17 as a result of the steadily increasing costs of business operations overall. He said that situation is not only occurring in the Freehold Regional High School District.
The district will receive $52.88 million in state aid for 2017-18, which is the same amount the district received in 2016-17. Administrators will use $10.5 million from surplus funds (savings) as revenue in the 2017-18 budget. The 2016-17 budget used $12.6 million from surplus.
Boyce said the district’s anticipated enrollment for 2017-18 is 10,851 students, which will be a decrease from the current enrollment of 10,961 students. He said the number of staff members will remain the same next year.
Before the vote to adopt the budget, board member Michael Messinger said, “The reason I am voting yes on this is because I really think that when you run for the board, you want the balance between the best education, but also representing the taxpayers and I think this budget does that.”
Board President Jennifer Sutera, Vice President Peter Bruno and board members Vincent Accettola, Elizabeth Canario, Samuel Carollo, Amy Fankhauser, Kathie Lavin, Heshy Moses and Messinger voted to adopt the budget.
