Schools

Port Jeff School District Passes Tax Cap Budget

Voters approved the $38 million budget that stuck to a 2 percent increase in the tax levy.

Residents from Port Jefferson school district passed a $38 million spending budget on Tuesday for the 2012-2013 school year by a vote of 787 to 342, according to the district's website.

Voters also put a new member on the Board of Education. took the third seat up for grabs with 571 votes. was kept his seat on the board with 632 votes as did with 604. received 525 votes and got 296.

The budget comes in at an even 2 percent tax levy increase, which is under the New York State mandated cap. The , a 1.85 percent increase from last year's budget.

Find out what's happening in Port Jeffersonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In order to stick to the tax cap, the budget comes with some cuts.

Moving from a saved the district $600,000. Realignment of the elementary school saves another $450,000 in the budget. Most of the savings are realized through staffing cuts and increases to class sizes. The third biggest area where money is saved int he new budget is in transportation by reducing the number of routes from 10 to nine, saving $100,000.

Find out what's happening in Port Jeffersonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Superintendent Kenneth Bossert said that the current budget is built with moving parts to help offset some costs if , slashing almost 40 percent of the revenue from the district.

One-time expenditures like capital improvements can be put off if needed. In addition, last year’s budget had no increase in spending but an increase of almost 9 percent on the tax levy, allowing the school to run as it had done in the past.

Voting took place from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at .

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