Last Chance: Pelham Budget Public Hearing

A final public hearing is being held on the Pelham school district's $65,560,607 spending plan during tonight school board meeting.

The state mandated hearing is the last one that will be held before the community vote's on the budget proposal on May 15.

The proposal would increase district spending by 3.75 percent increase from this year’s budget and increase the tax levy by about 2.6 percent. The district was allowed to increase the tax levy by up to  3.05 percent under this year’s state mandated tax cap.

The homestead, or residential, tax rate per $1,000 of assessed valuation under the proposal is estimated to be $18.30, which represents 5.8 percent increase. The non-homestead, or commercial, tax rate is estimated to be roughly $24.56, which represents an 11.7 percent increase.

Tonight's meeting is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. inside Pelham Memorial High School's Alumni Hall. A summary of the budget proposal and a copy of the draft  meeting agenda can be found found in the PDFs to the right of this story.

Correction: The homestead tax rate per $1,000 of assessed valuation under the proposal is estimated to be $18.30, which represents 5.8 percent increase. An earlier version of this story said otherwise.