Pembroke residents are facing about a 6.5 percent tax increase next year with 2008-09 town and school budgets and all warrant articles combined.

The bulk of the hike comes from a half-million-dollar increase in unanticipated special education costs.

After asking the town and school district to make significant cuts, the Pembroke Budget Committee has worked out a tax rate of $25.18 per $1,000 of assessed value, up $1.52 per $1,000 from the current rate of $23.66.

For a $250,000 house in town, that works out to an increase of $380. That puts the homeowner at $6,295 in property tax for the year, with even more tacked on for state and county taxes.

The budgets the town and school came into deliberations with combined resulted in a 10 percent increase in taxes for a rate of $25.95 per $1,000, for the same $250,000 house a $572.50 increase on the bill.

This comes after seeing only a 5-cent increase in the tax rate from 2006 to 2007.

While the Budget Committee’s cuts make the tax increase a little less scary, they also will require cuts in school staff and co-curricular programing, something Budget Committee member David Freeman-Woolpert said was very tough for the committee.

At a public meeting scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 2, at Pembroke Academy, the Budget Committee, School Board and Board of Selectmen hope to get citizen input on the final cuts the School Board and town will make.

Pembroke schools face staff and after-school program cuts to shave $310,000 off the budget. The town is charged with cutting $150,000 out of its budget to bring the tax increase to about a 5 or 6 percent increase, said Freeman-Woolpert.

Special education costs created a $500,000 deficit in this year’s school budget. That, plus higher county taxes, the second year of the teachers contract and rising transportation costs contributed to a 9 percent increase in the school’s 2008- 09 budget from last year. The town’s increase was only about 2.2 percent over last year’s.

The cuts the Budget Committee asked for would reduce the school’s $23.2 million proposed budget to $22.9 million, a 12 percent increase in taxes instead of the 15 percent increase the school’s numbers would have resulted in.

The town’s budget would be reduced from the proposed $7.7 million to about $7.6 million, about a 3 percent increase in town taxes.

The Pembroke School Board is asking for a deficit appropriation to offset most of their deficit, which will be factored in as a cost on the school district’s 2008-09 budget.

“We are in very bad budget trouble this year based on the fact that a number of unexpected special (education) costs emerged as the school year started and really have not been mitigated for the year. It continued to be a big problem for us all year,” said Superintendent Thomas Haley, adding students with expensive special needs came into the district this year.

The district also loses a potential $40,000 in revenue because a change in Medicaid regulations prevents the district from collecting on specialized transportation, Haley said.

After weeks of meetings going through line items and pondering potential cuts, the Budget Committee decided it couldn’t shave much off the school budget without cutting extra programs or staff, Freeman- Woolpert said.

The Pembroke School Board has a hard task ahead of it as members try to decide on line items to cut, Haley said.

There is no word on what staff positions would be cut, but after-school programming will account for some.

“The reality of the situation is that we have already level-funded almost every supply and equipment line in the budget. When they meet, it’s not going to be as simple as cutting books or pencils,” he said.

The Board of Selectmen took the $150,000 they were asked to cut to help remedy the tax increase from the 2008-09 budget year’s typical allocations for parks and recreation, large fire equipment and highway equipment capital reserve funds.

While not making those deposits doesn’t directly affect any of those three departments this year, it will affect taxes down the road, Town Administrator Geoff Ruggles said, when the funds need to be built up for future purchases.

Also contributing to the tax increase is the minimal rise, about $5 million, in property tax values in 2007 compared with prior years, Ruggles said.

Yearly increases in property taxes have been on the down slope since a moratorium on sewer hookups to the Suncook Wastewater Treatment Plant in 2001 began stifling development in Allenstown and Pembroke.

The last big increase in property values Pembroke saw was in 2006 with the coming of Associated Grocers, which brought in $20 million that year.

Freeman-Woolpert said the Budget Committee understands the school district’s plight, and wants the voters at the Feb. 2 meeting to discuss the financial problems the town faces.

Town officials want to know if Pembroke voters would rather have the tax increase and keep the school staff, if they agree with the cuts or whether they want more cuts.

“The more input we get at the public hearing, the more informed decision we can make for what we present at town meeting,” Ruggles said. “If no one shows up at the public hearing, we don’t know if this is acceptable.”