Schools

Preliminary Budget Approved by Phoenixville School Board

The budget includes a 5.08 percent tax hike; public budget meetings are planned to whittle that down.

Several board members stressed that this is just the beginning of a long process as the 2012-2013 Phoenixville Area School District preliminary budget was approved Thursday evening.

With Board President Paul Slaninka voting against the budget, it passed 8-1. Act 1, known as the Pennsylvania Taxpayer Relief Act, states that preliminary budgets must be passed by districts by Jan. 25. If a district goes over its index—the amount it can raise taxes—then it must go to a referendum at the upcoming primary election.

The index for Phoenixville Area School District is set at 1.7 percent, but the district has applied to the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) to seek approval for debt service and a Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) exceptions that would allow a higher tax increase. The 5.08 percent tax increase would fall into allowable limits as long as PDE approves the exceptions and the district will not have to go to referendum.

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Without the exceptions, the 1.7 percent index allows a tax increase amounting to $924,000 in revenue. With the exceptions, the allowable increase goes to $3.91 million.

In a budget presentation given in December, Superintendent Dr. Alan Fegley cited increasing health insurance costs, which are expected to jump 12.6 percent, increased debt service and the desire to maintain a $5.8 million reserve as reasons behind growing expenditures.

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On the revenue side, state education funding is expected to remain stagnant and local revenues continue to decline, according to the December presentation.

Slaninka cited the struggling economy as one reason he could not vote for the preliminary budget.

“I think this day in age of fiscal problems … any kind off tax increase right now is against anything I believe in,” Slaninka said.

Board Treasurer Josh Gould said he would be voting for the preliminary budget because it did not include the need for a referendum and because he sees it as the start of a process to get the increase down. He said he will not vote for a 5 percent increase in the final budget.

“We’ll work to whittle that down as we have in the past,” Gould said.

Board Member David Ziev agreed, saying the district is taking a good approach to getting the increase down. Irfan Khan, a newcomer to the board, agreed, explaining that the budget is preliminary and vowing that board members will work hard to trim the $79.3 million budget.

The proposed 5.08 percent tax increase would mean an average hike of $188 in annual tax bills for residents. Last year, the district raised taxes 2.66 percent.

As it did last year, the board will host public budget meetings, and the first one is set for Tuesday, Jan. 24 at 6 p.m. in the board room of the district administration building. The final budget for 2012-2013 must be approved by June 30. For more information, see the district’s full preliminary budget presentation


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