By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT — Thanks largely to a change in the Medicaid reimbursement for transportation, Claremont schools will be returning over $440,000 to taxpayers in the coming fiscal year, reducing property taxes by 63 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
The school board voted to give the money back at Wednesday night’s meeting, after a discussion about how to handle the surplus.
Board member Michelle Pierce said having a healthy fund balance is a good thing, and proposed a motion to keep as much of the unassigned fund balance as possible, returning about $200,000 to the tax payers. State law requires that unassigned fund balance be kept under 2 percent of the total budget, in order to prevent the raising of taxes unnecessarily.
Unassigned fund balance is money that remain unspent without an approved purpose. School boards must vote to set aside reserve funds. Reserve funds can hold unspent money that has a designated purpose, such as equipment replacement or building repair.
“There’s a cap on how much we can keep,” said deputy superintendent Cory LeClair. She said that taken altogether, the district has about $640,000 “in money that is essentially unassigned fund balance.”
However, discussion revealed that Claremont schools already have almost $200,000 in unassigned fund balance.
“Say we give the taxpayers back the money,” said board member Jason Benware. “If we take it back the following year, we’ve accomplished nothing.”
Mike O’Neill, business administrator, explained that the district has to have specific reasons to reserve money. O’Neill recommended giving back all the money the district could — the $443,000 — and keeping $197,000.
The board voted unanimously to do so.
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