At the May board meeting, Tammy Smith, Chief Operating Officer, told the Milford School District Board of Education that there was a chance the district would have to raise taxes for this year. However, at the June meeting, when Smith finished her presentation, she announced that the district would likely not have to increase property taxes for 2026-27. Several factors were leading to the potential increase, including an appeal before Sussex County for a property tax of $56 million which would likely be overturned.
“That $56.5 million appeal was approved by Sussex County as an exemption,” Smith said. “The calculation you saw last month took that into account as a worst-case scenario. Luckily, the growth in the district is actually higher than what I showed you last month and it is higher than last year as well. So, the exemption did not have a major decreasing effect on those property values.”
Smith explained that since the last board meeting, the Joint Finance Committee had marked up the budget bill which was presented by Governor Matt Meyer in January. The Joint Finance Committee had restored the $26 million statewide give back that has been in place since 2018 and restored anticipated cuts in athletic trainers, block grants and paid parental leave substitute reimbursement.
“The markup is still pending approval by the entire legislature and signature by the governor,” Smith said. “I met today to talk about state revenues, and we anticipate the markup bill will be released sometime this week. We’ll be able to see it then, but we have not seen it yet.”
Smith announced that the four tax portions, including debt service, operating funds, match-tax and tuition rates would remain the same for the upcoming year. This was because debt service declined as the district had not borrowed any additional funds, while minor cap, one of the match taxes, had increased.
“These offset each other,” Smith said. “I don’t anticipate any changes unless something goes wonky with the markup and the vote by the legislators by June 30, but hopefully sooner than that. The next step would be to bring the final calculations to the board at the July 6 meeting for approval.”
Vice President Matt Bucher asked if Smith felt comfortable with the number and, should the give back be eliminated, would that significantly change the tax rate.
“I feel confident about the numbers,” Smith said. “The give back would not go into this calculation as we do not give local dollars back. I only know what I have witnessed with my own two eyes. The Joint Finance Committee did vote to put that in the markup. I can’t control the vote of the legislators, I wish I could sometimes, but I’m hopeful.”
The board will vote on the final tax rate at the July 6 meeting.
