In a 7-2 vote, the Butler School Board finalized a $104 million budget Monday night and raised taxes by 3.03 mills.

A key aim behind the tax increase is to establish both a $650,000 annual contribution to a capital projects fund and a $150,000 emergency reserve that school board directors hope will help the district overcome its sizable debt-load by avoiding future borrowing. It also funds a slew of academic improvements, such as textbooks, three instructional coaches, a new guidance counselor, a behavioral therapist and a reconfiguration of gifted children programs, among other changes.

Suzie Bradrick and Bill Halle cast the two holdout “no” votes.

Bradrick said she simply wanted a smaller tax increase, rather than the maximum increase approved by the board.

“I just can't consciously do that,” Bradrick said. “It's just not what constituents say.”

Halle voiced concerns in prior meetings, and again reiterated his desire for more strict allocations of the new money. For example, he wanted the amount generated by the increase to be mandated to be used as it's budgeted.

“My plea was that we take that and we designate what that money is for,” Halle said.

Other board members and district employees said there was no better function to do so than what they're doing.

“A budget itself is what you put in place to say this is how we spend that money,” said Jennifer Cummings, the board's vice president.

Neither Bradrick or Halle voiced any specific problems with spending plans for the increase.

The tax increase should raise about $1.2 million. A mill of property tax generates $1 in revenue for each $1,000 of a property's assessed value. A property assessed at $100,000 will pay about $300 more a year in taxes.

Superintendent Brian White said a tax increase is a necessity if the district is ever going to overcome its $131 million in debt.

“My financial philosophy for the Butler Area School District is to try to save, rather than borrow,” White said. “If we mitigate interest payments in the future, we're saving taxpayer money. You, and your successors, have to hold true to that. If you divert the capital money, then this is all for naught.”

The budget also accounts for a 1.6 percent salary increase, a 2.4 percent health care cost increase, and a 0.86 percent state pension contribution increase.