The Dunkirk Central School District would see a 1.99% tax increase with the 2022-23 budget approved by the Board of Education.

The tax increase is in line with the advice given by Dr. Richard Timbs, the district’s education finances consultant, Superintendent Michael Mansfield noted. Timbs said in January the district should raise taxes 2% each year for the next five years to make up anticipated revenue shortfalls.

“We have a five-year fiscal plan to make sure the district stays in good fiscal condition,” Mansfield said. “His analysis right now is that we are in better shape than we have been in some time … so we want to keep that going.”

The budget must be approved by the voting public at the May 17 election. A Board of Education public hearing on the budget will be held May 10.

“We have to prepare for this anticipated, I put likely, revenue cliff that is coming,” Mansfield said. “It starts next year with the 2023-24 budget process, when we lose $759,988 in NRG mitigation aid.”

In 2024-25, federal money that backs yearly state aid hikes will run out, he continued. “We can really count on a lot less in terms of increase in state aid that year,” he said.

The 2022-23 budget is $52,396,017, a 1.91% spending increase over the current budget. It uses $3,698,161 in fund balance, as opposed to $5,572,190 for 2021-22, “so we reduced that by 33%, that’s a goal we feel good about reaching,” Mansfield said.

The superintendent continued that no expenditures were added, and only minor changes made, to the draft budget presented at the Feb. 22 Board of Education meeting.

Along with approving the budget for a public vote, the board on Tuesday also approved the annual property tax report card that is supposed to get sent to all district voters.

There’s also an open board seat up for election May 17, to replace former Board President David Damico, who had to resign after he won a seat on the Dunkirk Common Council.

Mansfield said petitions to get on the ballot are available at his office, from District Clerk Tara Jakse. Each petition needs 100 signatures to be eligible. The petitions must be submitted by 5 p.m. April 27.