The Lindbergh Board of Education voted unanimously last week to adopt a revised 2013-2014 operating budget that projects an operating surplus of more than $2 million.

The original operating budget approved by the school board in June projected a surplus of $4,679. The approved revised budget projects a surplus totaling $2,061,752.

The original 2013-2014 operating budget projected expenditures of $61,576,532 with anticipated revenues of $61,581,211.

The revised budget anticipates expenditures of $61,998,103 with projected revenues of $64,059,855.

During the Dec. 10 board meeting, Chief Financial Officer Charles Triplett said, “… On the revenue side, we found out in late September that the Gravois Bluffs TIF (tax-increment financing withholding) had come to an end. That will generate about $2.2 million for the school district that we did not know of in June …”

Since the adoption of the original budget, operating revenues increased by $2,478,644, with property taxes from the end of the Gravois Bluffs TIF withholding comprising $2,272,000 of that amount.

Regarding the operating budget adopted in June, Triplett said, “… We originally projected about a $4,600 surplus. We’re now projecting about a $2 million surplus. And that being said, it’s pleasant to have that, but we have many, many competing interests for that $2 million from the $6 million in budget cuts we’ve made over the last five years, to handling the growth, our student growth in the district, to trying to do what we can for moderate raises for staff … The list is far more than $2 million that we have …”

But the extra revenue is “good news, for a change,” Superintendent Jim Simpson said.