The budget details a 5.23 percent increase in overall operating expenditures, due to mandatory increases in energy costs and staff salaries, among others. However, the board’s Finance Committee was able to adjust other figures contributing to the tax levy, such as the debt service, down 11.64 percent from last year, in order to decrease the tax impact. This comes as especially good news to the borough’s taxpayers, given the fact that borough will face the largest increase in regional High School taxes of all the sending towns in the Pascack Valley Regional School District .

The 2008-2009 budget includes the maintenance of existing school programs, as well as various improvements to the schools. For instance, the schools will be employing a teacher of Mandarin Chinese, for students in kindergarten through second grade and sixth through eighth grade. The position will be part time, and the teacher will be shared with the Saddle River school district.

There will also be an addition of a new self-contained special education class for kindergarten and first grade special needs children, and will include the addition of one teacher and an aid. According to Business Administrator Fred Martens, the creation of this class is a way to provide for special needs children “in the least restrictive way possible as they move up through the school system.” The district will also see a $36,841 increase in energy costs.

There is a capital budget of totaling $346,000, including interest. $290,000 of the capital budget has been reserved for updating the computer systems at both Dorchester Elementary School and Woodcliff Middle Schools ; this is an ongoing effort, which includes the expansion of network wiring and replacing 8- and 9-year-old equipment. $25,000 of the capital budget is reserved for a renovation of the Dorchester School gymnasium, and $25,000 is budgeted for a renovation of the Woodcliff School cafeteria.

These increases, however, have been balanced with a number of areas in which expenditures decreased. Once such area is in the cost of staff health insurance, which fell $126,042 from last year, an 8.03 percent reduction. Another factor contributing to the lessening of the tax burden is the nearly $50 million in increased ratables the borough saw in 2007, which was largely due to commercial developments. According to Martens, the effect of the increase in ratables is that, “the pot got larger so the same bill is spread over a larger pie.”

Taxpayers will also be glad to see that the district’s debt service has decreased by 14.57 percent to $925,396. One reason for this, said Martens, is that the district “had short-term borrowings in prior years to fund the referendum, and we paid them off this year, so the interest expense also went down.” Additionally, he stated, the district was able to refinance the note at a lower interest rate. In order to further reduce the tax impact of the increased budget, the district applied $300,000 from the capital reserve toward offsetting the tax levy.

The Finance Committee is pleased with its accomplishment, according to Superintendent Peter M. Lisi. He emphasized that the current budget allows the school district to collect “the money needed to do continual good work… [while providing for] a bit of a tax break.”

The public will get a chance to vote on the budget on April 15, in the gymnasium of the Dorchester School , from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Karen F. Mrnarevic's e-mail address is Mrnarevic@northjersey.com.