Warren residents will see their tax bills drop after the Joint Finance Committee set a regional school budget Thursday night that includes a $350,000 reduction in Warren education aid compared to last year.

The $54.42 million school budget approved by the JFC Thursday is about $980,000 less than Bristol Warren Regional school administrators had asked for. And while Warren fared well and will see an estimated nine-cent drop in the expected tax rate as a result, Bristol taxpayers will have to dig deeper this coming year. The JFC’s plan requires residents in that town to contribute an additional $939,062 for education this coming year.

The JFC’s unanimous passage of the budget its the first since the inception of a new formula used to determine how much each town pays in local education aid. Voters in Bristol and Warren agreed last November to start using a 13-year rolling average of student enrollment to determine how much each town should pay, based on per pupil costs. Previously, enrollment had been counted on one day the previous school year; Warren officials argued that in recent years that “snapshot” has put an unfair burden on Warren.

JFC Chairman Joseph DePasquale said Sunday that he’s glad to see the towns of Warren and Bristol working together so cooperatively. That hasn’t always been the case, he said, though cooperation is essential to come up with a budget both towns can live with.

“We have to work together,” he said.

As for the school district receiving about $1.1 million less than administrators, “I hope it’s a compromise budget that they can live with. We tried to be fair.”

The budget also includes $16.25 million in state aid, about $420,000 less than Bristol Warren received last year.

What does it mean?

Factoring in the town’s municipal budget and school budget plan approved last Thursday, Warren residents can expect to see a $19.98 tax rate (per $1,000 valuation), per Warren Finance Director Michael Abbruzzi. That’s down nine cents from the $20.07 rate approved by voters at the Financial Town Meeting in May.

Warren will spend $12.832 million on education this year, down $350,616 from last year’s $13.182 million.

Bristol residents will pay $22.37 million for education this coming year, up $939,062 from last year’s $21.43 million. Determining the budget’s impact on Bristol’s tax rate is not yet possible. The town has not yet set a municipal budget, and officials have not yet accepted the recent town-wide statistical revaluation. Until the reval is accepted, Bristol officials won’t know the total size of the town’s tax base.