BUTLER TWP — The Joint Operating Committee of the Butler County Vocational-Technical School Thursday declined to forward its 2012-13 operating budget to local school boards.

The vote to move the budget forward failed in a 6-6 tie. It needed a seventh “yes” vote to pass.

In an executive session that preceded the vote, representatives of the seven school districts that comprise the board discussed labor issues that will affect the budget.

“It was a question with respect to the teachers’ contract,” said Tom Breth, vo-tech solicitor.

The vo-tech school has its own bargaining unit, not affiliated with any school district.

As proposed, the 2012-13 budget would have risen to $4.3 million from $4.2 million this year, a 2.5 percent increase. It would have slightly decreased the school district payments that fund the school and included a $30,000 operating reserve, as it has annually.

Employee salaries and benefits were the only proposed expenditures that would have risen, by $89,000 and $134,000, respectively.

“I cannot talk specifically about what directive they gave me with respect to personnel,” said Joe Cunningham, vo-tech director.

The six representatives of Butler and Seneca Valley school districts voted against forwarding the budget. Butler’s representatives are Carmen Bianco, John Conrad, Bill Halle and James Keffalas. Seneca Valley’s representatives are Eric DiTullio and James Nickel.

The six representatives of Karns City, Mars, Moniteau, Slippery Rock and South Butler school districts all voted to approve the budget.

“We just have a lot of questions,” Halle said. “It’s hard to approve even a proposed budget when you don’t know what world you’re going to be living in.”

Butler’s proposed $94.2 million 2012-13 budget includes a $6.7 million deficit that is expected to fall as its budget process progresses.

Nickel said many school districts in Pennsylvania are facing the same challenges as Seneca Valley, which is has a $4.8 million budget deficit for the 2012-13 school year.

“We want to look with a fine degree of granularity that we are operating as efficiently as we possibly can,” he said.

Gov. Tom Corbett releases his proposed education budget Tuesday, as part of the larger draft state budget. The budget then goes to the General Assembly for approval before he can sign it into law.

Cunningham said he would wait until the governor’s proposed budget comes out to provide more clarity to board members.

Each of the seven school districts funds the vo-tech with payments proportional to its number of students who attend classes there. Board representation also is proportional to a district’s vo-tech student population.