PASD Budget Passes With 2.66% Tax Hike

With Board President Paul Slaninka and Board Vice President Debbie Dawson in opposition, the $75.3 million 2011-2012 Phoenixville Area School District budget passed Thursday evening.

The budget includes a 2.66 percent increase in property taxes, which would amount to a $96 yearly increase for the median assessed home in the district. The median assessed value is $133,540. For every $100,000 of assessed value, a homeowner would pay $2,778 in real estate taxes annually.

While Slaninka commended the administration on its work on the budget, he said he couldn’t, in this economy, vote for a tax hike. He said the budget process for the 2011-2012 budget was well done.

“We wanted to be as transparent as there is in transparency,” Slaninka said.

Likewise, Dawson called the budget process “remarkable,” but she said she believed the district should have found a way to get to a zero percent increase.

“I am still going to vote zero,” Dawson said.

Board Secretary Mary Croke-Parris voted for the budget and said that the district went far with cuts for next year’s budget. She explained that getting to a zero percent increase may be cutting too deep.

“I really feel that to do more would be detrimental,” Croke-Parris said.

As for the potential $826,000 that could come back to the district in state funding if the state House Republican budget goes forward, that money will be used to decrease property taxes. If the state budget is approved prior to June 30, the board can amend the budget to reflect the changes. If approved after June 30, then the excess funding would be put aside for the future, earmarked to go toward lowering property taxes.

While the proposed final budget included a 3.14 percent tax increase, two amendments brought it to 2.66 percent. Both amendments were proposed by Board Treasurer Josh Gould.

First, Gould pitched restoring funding to the Phoenixiville Public Library to the 2010-2011 level of $508,326. The proposed final budget included a 4 percent decrease year over year of $20,333. That decrease would have likely been felt in children’s programming.

After every board member stated his or her case for or against restoring the funding, a roll call vote ended up at 6-3. The cost to the average taxpayer would be $1, according to Superintendent Dr. Alan Fegley. Board members Betsy Ruch, Jill Slawecki, Dr. Daniel Cushing, Jan Potts, Croke-Parris and Gould voted in favor, while Slaninka, Dawson and David Ziev voted against restoring the funding.

The $20,333 difference brought the tax increase to 3.18 percent. That was notched down to 2.66 percent when the second amendment passed 9-0.

That amendment dealt with accounting for possible revenue increases and expenditure decreases found by a proposed new director of continuous improvement. The salary for that position will be approximately $130,000, with a total package of $150,000.

In a three-year contract position, the director of continuous improvement will be tasked with finding revenue sources and cutting costs across various district funds. Gould said with the administration’s help, he estimated the net savings and revenue increases will amount to $265,000 in the 2011-2012 budget. Fegley said the estimates were conservative and that he was comfortable making the adjustments to the budget.

The final budget approval marked what may be the end of tumultuous budget process in the district. The preliminary budget included a 4.43 percent tax increase. Then, Gov. Corbett’s proposed budget removed $2.3 million in state funding.

The district held a series of public budget meetings to work to find cuts. In all, 13.5 personnel positions were removed district-wide, and a pay-to-participate fee will be charged for all extracurricular activities at a rate of either $25 or $50, with a maximum cap of $125 for families and $75 for individual students. Those in the free or reduced lunch programs may be accommodated through booster organizations or other funding sources.

Despite being on the table at one point, a total cut to transportation, cuts of athletic programming mainly at the middle school and freshman levels and other more drastic cuts were shelved for the final budget.