MILTON — The Milton school board on Monday night approved a $50 million budget for 2025-26 with a 6% drop in the tax rate.
The tax rate goes down to $6.48 from $6.90, which leads to a tax bill of $1,944 on a $300,000 home.
The rate has been on a steady decline since 2019-20 when it was over $9. It was relatively flat into 2020-21 and then dropped to just over $8. The rate was $8.11 in 2022-23 and $7.49 in 2023-24.
The headcount of students, which is later converted into membership, is a driver in aid for the district. If a student does not attend the district full-time, they are not tallied as a whole number, which leads to a full-time equivalency number, or membership.
The state-imposed revenue limit that the district can collect on state general aids and local tax levy is under $39 million, but that cap is up to just over $42 million because of the nonrecurring $2.5 million referendum, aid money that comes in due to a declining enrollment over a three-year period and one-time exemptions from the state.
The 2024-25 revenue limit was about $38 million, up from just over $37 million in 2023-24.
MacPherson predicted flat state aid at the beginning of July, which has been the case, there was a 0.04% decrease in overall state aid.
The three-year declining enrollment aid, or hold harmless exemption, will be gone as the district will no longer qualify. Director of Business Services Ross MacPherson cited calculations in the three-year third Friday membership and revenue limit and the district’s $325 per pupil aid the district receives, “which is great because we can preserve base revenue for future years,†he said.
The tax levy is going down to about $21.75 million from $21.76 million in 2024-25 and $22.66 million in 2023-24. It is about a 0.05% reduction in the tax levy, which MacPherson referred to as “wonderful.â€
The district’s current $2.5 million nonrecurring referendum will expire at the end of the 2025-26 school year.
The general fund will have about $16 million and there will be about $5.2 million of referendum debt. The overall budget is a slight increase from 2024-25 when it was just under $50 million, about a 1.23% increase.
MacPherson said work will begin immediately on the 2026-27 budget.