With a multimillion dollar building plan looming and the threat of cuts in state funding, a vote to decrease property taxes in the McKeesport Area School District has some board members worried that the district will cut it too close to the red in the coming fiscal year.

The $59.1 million budget included a one mill decrease in the tax rate, putting it at 16.71 mills, the lowest in the county among school districts.

The budget passed last week by just one vote, with board president Lori Spando, vice president Joseph Chiaverini, and board members James Brown, David Donato and Christopher Halaszynski voting for the budget. Board members Barbara Stevenson, Steven Kondrosky, Wayne Washowich and Joseph Lopretto voted against it.

To pay for the decrease in taxes, the district will spend more than half of the $4.4 million fund balance left over from the last year. About $2.7 million of the fund balance from this year will go to cover the decrease in revenue and the increase in spending.

Mr. Kondrosky, Ms. Stevenson and Mr. Washowich all expressed concerns that the district would struggle to pay for a master plan that has been in the works since last year. Cost estimates for the project, which includes two new elementary schools and possible renovations on Cornell Intermediate, are close to $40 million.

The district currently has about $30 million in a capital improvement fund that could go toward the project and plans to float a bond to cover the rest. Outgoing superintendent Dr. Shirley Golofski, who retired Tuesday, suggested that some of the fund balance could cover part of the cost, reducing the amount the district would have to borrow.

Dr. Golofski warned board members that "taxpayers would be punished doubly" by having to pay off a loan with interest.

But Mr. Donato, who proposed the tax decrease, said the district has consistently ended the fiscal year with fund balances of around $6 million, and that the taxpayers deserved to get some of their money back. He also said he believed that it was the district's role to ease the tax burden on the five cash-strapped communities that make up the district.

He pointed out that two of the communities, Dravosburg and Versailles, have had to get rid of their police departments and two other communities, White Oak and McKeesport, have had to lay off municipal employees. Lowering the millage in the school district gives those communities room to raise their tax rates.