CHERRY TWP — Board directors at Moniteau School District voted 7-2 for a 4-mill increase as part of its finalized 2024-25 budget during a meeting Monday, June 24.

With revenue of $23,582,899 and expenditures of $25,393,564, the district will dip into its fund balance to cover the deficit, which stands at about $1.5 million, assuming Moniteau doesn’t use its budgetary reserve of $250,000, according to business manager Austin Blauser.

The budget raises the millage rate from 97.38 to 101.38 a year. For the average homeowner, the increase would amount to about $62 more per year, Blauser said.

For homesteads and farmsteads approved by the state under a homestead tax exemption, Blauser said the increase would amount to about 19 cents a month.

“No one likes to raise taxes,” board president Michael Panza said. “But the reality is that we’re going to be able to get teacher contracts, we’re going to be able to have events for kids, and we’re going to continue to support our athletic and academic opportunities.”

A one-mill increase generates $68,000 in revenue for the school district, Panza said, which is lower than larger districts.

“We would have to raise taxes 10 mills here to ... generate the 1 mill they raise in Seneca Valley,” Panza said.

Projected district expenses include entrance additions and parking lot and sidewalk renovations that are expected to run $900,000, Panza said, as well as a 19.68% increase in health care premiums equating to almost a half-million dollars, he told the board in May.

Board director Mark DeMatteis said the district’s installation of solar panels at the high school and Dassa McKinney Elementary School may save the district money next year. Earlier in the meeting, Jeff Campbell, director of buildings and grounds, reported last month’s partial electric bill for the high school was $9,000, about half what it would have been before the solar array was put into operation.

“We (have to) plan for the worst and hope for the best,” Panza said about the budget.