The Vicksburg Warren School District plans to spend about $2.5 million more in the next budget year, gaining from an increased state allocation and more from local taxes – with no change in tax rates.

The budget, presented Thursday and expected to be approved before the district’s new fiscal year starts July 1, calls for $73,269,287 in spending on $69,989,691 in projected revenue with $3.2 million coming from reserves or other sources.

&#8220Taking care of taxpayers’ money has always been very important to this board,” said Jan Daigre, president of the five-member elected board. &#8220This is a hard year to make the budget work and not raise taxes, but we can do it.”

For this year, the district has been following a record $70.8 million spending plan on $68.2 million in projected revenue. When it was adopted, trustees also expected no increase in local taxes, but the Warren County Board of Supervisors, which sets the actual levy in September, raised the countywide assessment for schools by 0.55 mill to meet, as required, the schools’ request. For an average homeowner, that translated to about $5 more in school taxes per year.

Superintendent James Price said the district has been following cost-cutting procedures and, as reported Thursday, is benefitting from shorter routes and fewer buses to serve community-zoned elementaries than were needed under a choice-based plan used from 1989 until 2005.

&#8220It’s been a methodical three-year process to bring us to the point where we can absorb these amounts without having to raise taxes,” said Price, who has headed the 9,000-student district during that time.

Information presented to the board and about 20 members of the faculty, staff and community who attended a public hearing showed 74.35 percent of the budget going to employee salaries and benefits.

Although last year marked the end of the five-year implementation of teacher pay raises, the salary step chart the district follows will cost more than $305,000 in the upcoming year. A mandated increase for teacher retirement will cost the district more than $201,000.

&#8220And that’s just what’s mandated,” Price said. &#8220That doesn’t include the $1.6 million anticipated increase in utility costs.”

Price said after sorting through figures, it’s just a matter of managing the budget a bit more tightly.

&#8220It’s been a belt-tightening experience in all areas except instructional. But I can tell you, there is no fat.”

Twenty-four administrative positions have been shifted or cut in the past three years, saving the district $1.3 million, Price said. In addition to reducing fuel consumption by 24 percent with the implementation of community schools, the district has set up a new system for tracking work orders in its Support Services department, saving $725,000.

&#8220But with all these money-saving cuts, we’ve actually increased our instructional faculty – most recently by adding 10 behavior specialists and social workers to the district payroll,” Price said.

For the new year, there will be an additional $1.9 million in funds from state sources, but not enough to meet funding formulas established by the Mississippi Adequate Education Program in 1997. The increase in local funds, about $900,000 is expected to come from more properties to tax at rising values – not higher rates.

The district receives 50.1 percent of its funding from the state government, 34.6 percent from local taxpayers, 13.9 percent from the federal government and 1.4 percent from 16th Section land, said Dale McClung, financial planner for the district.

In other meeting business, the board: