MONROE — The Monroe Board of Education approved its budget during the Oct. 28 board meeting, setting the lowest tax rate since the late 1990s for the district’s 2019-20 school year.

The School District of Monroe’s annual tax levy will be at $12,103,160, less than a 1% increase from last year. The levy is slightly higher than projected at the district’s annual meeting earlier this month, when it was estimated at an even smaller increase. 

School tax rates will also be slightly higher — at 9.91% instead of 9.76% — but are under 10% for the first time since the 1998-99 budget year. The owner of a home valued at $100,000 would pay $991 in school taxes.

This fluctuation is due to a change in equalized valuation of homes. District Business Administrator Ron Olson said the Department of Revenue’s fall adjustment put Monroe’s equalized valuation up 7.52%, which impacted taxes. 

That is still “exceedingly high,” he said, compared to most years, but it’s down from the spring projection of an 8.47% increase. 

One of the few changes to the budget is related to the state’s school voucher program, Olson said, and it’s the first time that Monroe has been affected by it. 

In it, parents with students attending a private school that has opted into the program can be reimbursed for part of those expenses by the school district. In Monroe’s case for this year, that amount is $24,138. That number represents three or four students, Olson said.

This doesn’t actually affect the budget that much, however, because the state, in turn, reimburses the school district for those expenses. 

“There is an impact to our taxpayers, though,” said Olson, because those are taxpayer dollars that have been paid to Monroe School District that are then sent elsewhere. Since it is handled by the state, the district doesn’t know which students or schools are using the program. 

In other changes, the budgeted deficit has been reduced from $346,225 to $239,206, thanks to increased revenue. That revenue includes $16,555,437 in state aid, up from the $16,475,000 the district had estimated.

“It puts us in a good place this year,” Olson said, noting that, based on the district’s history of expenditure management, it should have little deficit or even a small surplus at the end of the year.