LAKE PLACID — The Lake Placid Central School District’s proposed 2022-2023 school year budget would increase spending while decreasing school taxes.

The proposed budget would spend $20,911,744, a .87% increase from $20,731,143 last year, though the proposed budget comes with a slight tax levy decrease. The district’s revenue from state aid is expected to increase by more than $100,000 in 2022-2023. The district also wants to allocate more money from its reserves — $669,662, an increase from $488,570 last year — to shoulder the proposed increase in spending.

If the budget is approved as-is, the overall tax levy would drop by .2% from $16,710,000 in 2021-22 to $16,675,694 in 2022-23.

If approved by voters, the school tax rate per $1,000 in assessed value would drop by one cent, from $6.87 in 2021-2022 to $6.86 in 2022-2023 in both North Elba and Wilmington. A person whose home is assessed at $200,000 would pay around $1,372 in school taxes.

The estimated basic School Tax Relief (STAR) exemption under the district’s proposed budget would be $206 for a house assessed at $200,000.

Aside from the usual expenses in its budget, the school plans to pay off some debt the district took on to cover the cost of capital upgrades completed in the district last year, along with administrative and programmatic costs. People can view the district’s budget book at https://tinyurl.com/2p8f65e9.

A public hearing on the budget will be held on May 10 at 6 p.m. in the boardroom of the Lake Placid Middle-High School Administrative Services building. The budget will go before voters from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. on May 17 at the Lake Placid Elementary School and at the Wilmington Community Center.

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Also on the ballot

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LPCSD is having its first contested school board election in 10 years this year, which will also be on the budget ballot. Candidates Beth Brunner, Douglas Lansing, Ron Briggs and Colleen Skufca are running to fill two seats.

Current school board President Rick Preston and board member Bryan Liam Kennelly, whose terms are up this year, are not running for reelection. Voters will vote for two candidates to fill the seats. The board of education will later nominate its picks for president and vice president.

Voters will also have the option to approve or reject the district’s proposed Repair Reserve Fund. The school board wants to transfer $1 million from budgetary appropriations and/or unreserved fund balance and use the reserve fund for site, building and athletic field improvements, furnishings and equipment.

There are also two propositions on the ballot. One proposition proposes increasing funding for the Wilmington E.M. Cooper Memorial Public Library by $620, from $15,470 to $16,090 annually; the other proposes authorizing the lease of two 66-passenger school buses for a period not exceeding five years at an annual cost not exceeding $44,200.