Uniontown school board approves tentative budget with tax increase
UNIONTOWN — Uniontown Area school directors approved a tentative budget for the 2018-19 school year that calls for the district’s first property tax increase in eight years.
The board Monday voted 6-2 in favor of the proposed $49.1 million spending plan that is marginally more costly than the current-year budget, an increase of less than 1 percent.
Superintendent Dr. Charles Machesky said following Monday’s meeting that the budget includes the district’s first tax increase since 2010.
The new plan carries a hike of 1.17 mills, which would raise the district millage rate from 14.43 mills to 15.6 mills — or $15.60 for each $1,000 of assessed valuation of taxable property.
Business manager Jill Regan said the hike will generate an estimated $1.2 million in new revenue for the district, which will help to cover a deficit in the budget.
School directors Bill Gerke and Bill Rittenhouse voted against the proposed budget. Dorothy Grahek was not in attendance.
Machesky said since the last tax increase, the district has completed $60 million worth of building projects while incurring increased costs to the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) totaling more than $1 million.
“We just can’t continue to eat the cost anymore,” Machesky said of the mandated PSERS contributions.
The version of the budget approved Monday trims about $16,000 from an earlier iteration passed in February, which carried a deficit of nearly $4 million.
Regan said the district will be able to use the additional tax revenue and the entirety of an anticipated $1.3 million fund balance to help balance the budget. The district will need to borrow about $1.5 million to cover the remaining shortfall, she said.
The imminent possibility of a tax increase and a loan comes despite efforts to curtail spending in the district during creation of the budget.
“We cut everything we possibly could,” said Regan.
Cuts in the areas of technology, athletics, transportation and supplies will save the district $250,000 next year. By opting to not replace four retirees and several other vacant personnel positions, the district will take another $490,000 off the books, Regan said.
Expenditures in the proposed budget total about $400,000 more than the district’s current budget. Regan said that is due in large part to increased retirement, health insurance, cyber and charter school, and special education costs.