The Flin Flon school board has signed off on a budget that boosts spending, upgrades infrastructure and requires homeowners to make up for dollars that now flow to city hall.
Trustees voted 6-0 last week to approve their 2015-16 budget, a $14.1-million document that met no opposition at a public unveiling last month.
Approval was a two-step process. First, trustees voted to okay the budget and send it to the provincial government for final authorization.
Next, they voted to forward their 2015-16 taxation requirement to the City of Flin Flon, which collects property taxes on behalf of the board.
The budget boosts the education portion of property taxes by five per cent even though the board will receive the same amount of money from local sources.
The difference this year is that the city will collect a greater share of Hudbay’s grant in lieu of taxes, leaving less money for the board.
That left trustees with two alternatives: reduce spending or increase taxes on homeowners to make up the difference.
They chose the latter option, with Trustee Tim Davis, chair of the finance committee, touting the fact that no learning resources were cut.
The budget augments spending by $376,080, or 2.74 per cent, over the current year. Major capital costs include $75,000 to upgrade the Technical Vocational Institute beside Hapnot Collegiate.
The board’s seventh trustee, Angela Simpson, was absent for the budget vote.
