By Adam Studzinski

NORMAL – Unit 5’s Board of Education got a look Wednesday night at the district’s tentative fiscal year 2015-2016 budget.

The overall budget is balanced at $150 million. The $95.8 million education fund makes up the majority of that and is expected to show a surplus of about $500,000.

Finance Director Marty Hickman said finding a balanced budget isn’t easy.

“It’s extremely difficult,” said Hickman. “Many of the variables, especially on the revenue side, are not known until very late into the actual budget period. Things can change, as we learned this past year, in March when the governor cut the budget.”

Hickman said the area’s equalized assessed value is expected to increase 2 percent, which does help a little.

“That’s really the only increases that we’re seeing on the revenue side right now,” he said.

The $9.9 million transportation is expected to show a deficit of 2.2 million dollars. Hickman explained there are a couple of reasons for the deficit.

“The deficit we’re showing this year includes an audit finding. We were paid early, basically, from the state. We’ve paying that back to them over the past few years. This is the final year for that,” said Hickman. “Out of that $2.2 million that we’re showing this year, about $1.2 million is that audit finding. The rest of it is a structural deficit.”

Hickman said Unit 5 is working to reduce that structural deficit.

The board will vote on the budget in September.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].