Yes taxes are going down, thanks Mr. Hellman. This is good for the short term, but we shall ask you once again...WHERE IS THE PLAN?
From today's BCCT:
Residents to see $180 tax decrease
By: MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
Several positions, including some aides and a long-term substitute reading teacher, will not be replaced in an effort to keep expenses down.
Morrisville residents can expect a tax decrease next year of about $180. That's 10 mills less than was estimated a month ago.
Since then, the budget has dropped about another half a million dollars, down to $18.36 million. District Business Administrator Paul DeAngelo was able to cut from expenditures.
The items he removed included some staff positions that were on this year's budget but were not approved for next year.
Several positions, including some aides and a long-term substitute reading teacher, will not be replaced in an effort to keep expenses down.
Taxes are expected to be lowered to $3,191 for an average assessed property of $18,000. Individual taxes may be even lower if people take advantage of homestead rebates that the state offers from its gaming revenue.
As usual, salaries and benefits make up a large percentage of expenditures. Total staff salaries are expected to cost $9.22 million and total benefits should be $2.35 million.
Though the board voted 7-1 for the shrunken budget, it met with mixed reactions from the crowd of residents at Wednesday's board meeting.
Board member Robin Reithmeyer voted against the budget based on the fact that the line items cut from the budget include money for 10 aides. Since those aides have left, the district should be looking at hiring replacements, or the level of education could suffer, she said.
Board member Joe Kemp was absent.
Damon Miller, who is running for a seat on the board, said he wanted to see more money spent on new educational programs and initiatives.
Lower taxes came as good news for some Morrisville residents.
Steve Worob and Ron Stout congratulated the district on the smaller budget. It will take some of the burden off taxpayers, they said.
The total budget decreased by about $1.5 million from this year, due to several changes. Among them are a more efficient HVAC system in the high school next year and an effort to cut extraneous paper use, as well as some employee reduction through attrition.
The future could bring some uncontrollable costs to Morrisville, including a predicted sharp rise in future retirement pension contributions, which could be up to 30 percent higher by 2013, according to the state.
