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2.5% Tax Hike Proposed for SVSD Property Owners

In an effort to balance the district’s 2017-2018 budget, Saucon Valley School Board members Tuesday discussed a budget proposal that would result in a 2.5 percent tax increase for district property owners; the first such increase in eight years.

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In an effort to balance the district’s 2017-2018 budget, Saucon Valley School Board members Tuesday discussed a budget proposal that would result in a 2.5 percent tax increase for district property owners; the first such increase in eight years.

That percentage equates to a 1.29 mill increase, and a majority of board members supported it.

That increase would raise the district’s total millage rate from 51.74 mills to 53.03 mills, which would mean a $129 increase on a home assessed at $100,000, for example, for a total district tax bill of $5,303, the Morning Call reported.

The money raised by the tax increase would help to balance an approximately $1.4 million budget shortfall, with the remainder of the funds needed to fill the budget gap coming from the district’s fund balance.

School board members debated whether to use only money from the fund balance to balance the $46,432,405 proposed budget, which has been done over the past few years to help fill several budget gaps.

“I would say we go with the $46.5 (million budget proposal) with zero millage increase, because if you look at the state recommendation they’re saying we should have eight percent of our budget in the reserve. Our reserve far exceeds that eight percent,” board member Ed Inghrim said.

“Since we do have such a high fund balance, I’d like to see us take some of that fund balance and pay off some of our debt, which is going to affect all our budgets, not just the one for this year,” board member Susan Baxter said.

Board member Ralph Puerta disagreed with that fiscal approach, however.

“Even by the simplest math you know we have to be falling behind if we’re trying to hold revenue constant and absorb cost increases. Even if they’re at the rate of inflation, which they are not, these assessments are just far beyond anything you could call inflation,” he said. “There is a structural problem in our finances. We are behind by about $1.4 million in this budget, despite what I think is fairly good and sincere work at cost control. We are not spendthrifts.”

“If we don’t do something sooner or later, the bucket will empty,” he added. “There’s nothing in the structure of this community that will change that.”

“We have overtaxed residents for years,” Inghrim responded. “If we have to throw old people out of their homes I’d rather do it later than sooner. Simple as that. I mean I can’t sit there on $10 million in surplus and increase taxes on people living on fixed incomes. It just goes against my religion.”

He added that Pennsylvania is the only state he has lived in where he is unable to vote on a school district budget proposal.

A state program that provides modest property tax rebates for senior citizens was discussed briefly before board solicitor Mark Fitzgerald recommended that further discussion about it be held in executive session.

A vote on Inghrim’s motion to approve the proposed $46.5 million budget without a tax increase failed 6-3, with Inghrim, Baxter and Bryan Eichfeld voting in favor of it.

Following the vote, Eichfeld said that one of the reasons he opposes raising taxes has to do with the last teacher contract the board approved.

“The last teacher contract that we signed is one of the key factors that are causing us to have to raise the taxes, and I voted against that contract, so that’s why I’m gonna vote against this raise in taxes,” he said.

Added Baxter, “one of the reasons that we had to spend as much money as we did on the teacher contracts was the fact that we had so much money in the fund balance, so it keeps going round and around–it’s this self-perpetuating cycle.”

Board president Michael Karabin said he did not believe that was the only reason, and both Baxter and Eichfeld then amended their comments to say they believe the relatively large fund balance was one of the reasons the contract was costlier to the district.

Subsequently, a vote on the proposed budget with the 2.5 percent increase passed by a vote of 7-2, with Inghrim and Eichfeld voting no.

“This is a starting point. You have 30 days to adopt the final (budget),” district business manager David Bonenberger told the board.

To watch a video of the entire board meeting on YouTube, click here.

The next school board meeting will be held Tuesday, May 23 at 7 p.m. in the high school Audion room.

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About the author

Josh Popichak

Josh Popichak is the owner, publisher and editor of Saucon Source. A Lehigh Valley native, he's covered local news since 2005 and previously worked for Berks-Mont News and AOL/Patch. Contact him at josh@sauconsource.com.

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