Uniontown school board includes tax increase in tentative budget
The Uniontown Area School Board included a tax increase in the tentative 2008-09 budget adopted Monday. Included in the tentative budget is $37 million in estimated revenue, an estimated $834,000,000 in real estate tax revenue and a $3.5 million fund balance, which equals $41 million.
The board balanced the $41,515,141 spending plan by including a .83 millage increase, the maximum allowed under a resolution adopted in January limiting the board on how much it can increase property taxes under Act 1 of 2006 state regulations.
The district would receive an additional $34,000,000 in tax revenue as a result of the proposed millage increase, which would raise the tax rate to 13.85 mills.
Under the proposed rate, property and homeowners would pay $138.50 or an additional $8.30 for $10,000 of assessed property value.
A district resident owning a home assessed at $50,000, for example, would pay $692.50 in property taxes, a $41 increase over the current amount, according to Sonya Over, business manager.
To balance the budget, the board included the potential tax increase as well as the fund balance, typically reserved for capital improvements or emergencies.
The board plans to consider approximately $1 million in cuts to make up for the same estimated amount in cost increases, according to board member William Rittenhouse Jr., co-chairman of the board’s finance/personnel committee.
Cuts the board will consider at an upcoming budget committee meeting include approximately $800,000 in duplication of services. Bookkeeping mistakes caused, for example, the cost of transportation to be included in both the district’s transportation and athletic budgets, Rittenhouse said.
Other cuts that will be considered are a $15,000 reduction in the purchase of security equipment and hires that are a possibility in the upcoming year. The hires include an additional administrator, technicians and a full-time heating, ventilation and air conditioning staff person, said Rittenhouse.
Rittenhouse said no cuts in staffing or educational programs have been included in the tentative budget and those types of cuts are not planned for discussion at the upcoming meeting.
The increased cost of expenditures, said Over, is due to a rise in contractual issues involving salaries and healthcare and an 8.6 percent increase in insurance costs.
With the cost to power equipment and light buildings also expected to rise, the district next year has budgeted for a 20 percent increase in electricity costs, said Over. The rising price of gasoline is predicted to cause the cost of supplies and materials to rise, she said.
“We’re looking at increases pretty much across the board on almost everything you purchase,” said Rittenhouse. “There has been no big decrease in any particular area.”
The district’s bond counsel recommended that the board hike property taxes by 2.9 mills about three years ago in order to gradually pay back money borrowed for a high school renovation/addition project to renovate the high school, but the board has not increased taxes at all since that time, said Rittenhouse.
“If (taxes were increased) on a gradual basis, we’d bet in better shape financially,” Rittenhouse said. “We would be $4 million plus in the budget now.”
The board must approve a final spending plan by June 30, the last day of the 2007-08 fiscal year.