AUBURN - The Auburn Enlarged City School District Board of Education took its first look at a tentative $63.7 million budget featuring spending and tax levy increases of about 7 percent Tuesday.

Nearly $2 million in state aid and the end of a $520,000 payment in lieu of taxes will exaggerate spending and tax levy numbers, district Business Administrator Marianne O'Connor told the board.

First-year foundation aid from the state accounts for about 3 percent of the spending increase, O'Connor said. Administrators are unclear on what specific areas that $1.9 million designated for programming can be used for.

“We don't have detail really on how that money can be spent,” O'Connor said.

Salaries and benefits, particularly health insurance, and costs associated with the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, also helped with the spending increase.

About $520,000 is also missing from the revenue column due to the end of a payment in lieu of taxes agreement, but that will be added to the tax roll this year.

The tentative figures boil down to a full value tax rate of $18.85 per $1,000 of assessed value, about 74 cents more than this year's $18.01.

The board plans to agree on a proposed budget for 2007-08 on April 10. The public will vote May 15.

That ballot also will include a land sale proposition that many Fleming Street residents who showed up at Tuesday's meeting do not agree with. The board voted 7-2 in favor of a proposition that will ask district taxpayers for permission to sell a little less than an acre of land bordering the high school property.

Though a fence separates 19 residential plots from district land, the school property line actually extends as much as 20 feet into the backyards of Fleming Street. Homeowners willing to buy the property were less enthused about the price of 50 cents per square foot included in the proposition.

“We would prefer to come up with a compromise on the situation,” Patty Androsko said on behalf of about a dozen neighbors in attendance. “We would like it to be on the ballot without the price.”

Though some board members wanted to amend the cost out of the proposition, the price based on fair market value for the strips of land must be included. Failure to act on the proposition would leave the issue open for at least another year without a special election.

“As it stands right now, we still have that liability concern,” Superintendent John Plume said.

Board members Joseph Leogrande and Charlie Cator voted against putting the proposition on the ballot.

Fleming Street residents said they were frustrated with time constraints and the school's approach, contending the 50-cent figure was not discussed in an initial meeting with district officials that took place a week ago.

Staff writer Shane Liebler can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or shane.liebler@lee.net