Laurel approves tax increase
Laurel Highlands School District property owners will pay 5.45 mills more in taxes this year. The school board raised the tax rate when they adopted a $31,025,045 final budget Tuesday night for 2002-2003.
The board voted 7-2 in the budget’s favor and 8-1 to set the tax rate at 51.75 mills, with 2 mills added for payment toward a bond issue and 3.45 mills added for the general fund budget.
All directors were present. Directors Angelo Giachetti and Shirley Kefover voted against the budget and Giachetti again voted no on the tax rate.
The board had put off adopting the budget to wait for a final total on state subsidies.
Laurel Highlands ultimately received a 2.7-percent hike in state money for basic education. Board members had discussed the possibility of a 2-percent raise from the state during recent budget meetings and the extra .7 percent meant an added $78,553.
They held a finance committee meeting before the special meeting Tuesday night, and there was some further hesitation among board members on a final vote.
Keeping in mind the fiscal year started Monday and the district needs to meet payroll and other financial obligations, solicitor Gary Frankhouser, on Director Judy Browell’s question before the vote, said the board should consider passing the budget. He said the consequence of not passing a budget could eventually be loss of local control of the school district to the state.
The last time they met, the board considered the possibility of a 6.36-mill raise in taxes to close an $873,247 deficit between projected revenue and expenses and also cover the annual payback on a $2.97 million bond issue the school board floated to pay for the unfunded debt left over from the 2001-2002 budget.
One mill raises about $180,000 in revenue.
The tentative budget the board passed in May totaled $31.8 million.
Superintendent Dr. Ronald Sheba said the budget was “cut to the bone” but the $686,479 shortfall remained. He said he and business manager Joyce Estocak and administrator Dr. Gary Brain recommended the tax raise as it was stated.
“We pored over this many, many times. We feel we made substantial cuts. I feel it’s an appropriate budget. It’s a realistic budget. It’s cut to the bone,” Sheba said.
All the board members had something to say about the budget.
Director Julia Ciarrocchi at first said she could not, “in her professional opinion,” vote yes but afterward said she changed her mind based on Frankhouser’s comments and those of others who pledged to be diligent with spending during the year.
Giachetti several times said he could not vote in favor of the spending plan because of the tax hike and spoke of unfairly burdening the taxpayers.
Kefover said although she voted no to the budget, she decided to vote yes for the taxes to support the operation of the district “on account of the children.”
Directors Mary Conway and Beverly Beal mentioned during the finance committee meeting that they were new to the board, having started their terms in January, and were not responsible for the financial troubles of the past. They referred to the shortfall that led to the district having outstanding debts from the 2001-2002 budget.
Several directors commented during the resulting discussion that the prior business manager told the board they had a fund balance when they did not, but that no one person could be to blame and that the board members approved expenses.
Director Palmer Sabatine said the board members thought they had money to spend.
Noting that school officials had the deficit from the prior year going into this budget process, President Edward S. George said the board went through every item but needed to be careful not to cut too much.
“We’ve got a school district to run,” Director Tom Vernon said.
Saying she would vote yes for the sake of keeping the schools running, Browell said the board had to “bite the bullet” this year with the tax raise or the district could be even worse off next budget year.
Vernon vowed the expenses would be kept in check this year and hoped for better times.
“We are going to watch our spending this year so we can get back on track, and hopefully next year, we will have a fund balance,” he said.