From the BCCT:
Most districts seeking higher tax rates
By: JOAN HELLYER
Bucks County Courier Times
The projected average tax increases range from $108 in Morrisville to $464 in Bristol.
Six out of the eight school districts in Lower Bucks County plan to ask the state for permission to raise taxes in the coming school year beyond what is allowable under the state's property tax relief law.
The Morrisville and Pennsbury school boards were the only governing bodies in Lower Bucks to pledge to keep any tax increase for 2010-11 within the assigned index rate. That amounts to a 3.4 percent increase of Morrisville's current tax rate and a 2.9 percent increase of Pennsbury's millage rate.
School boards throughout Pennsylvania that planned to not raise taxes beyond their index rate had until Thursday to pass a resolution stating their intentions, as per the property tax relief law known as Act 1. A district's index is determined by averaging employment cost index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics with the statewide average weekly wage.
Most districts, however, have indicated that remaining below their designated index rate would not be possible, given the current economic climate.
The school boards will ask the state's permission to increase their respective tax rates even further to cover various exceptions. They include special expense costs, debt service payments and the estimated 4 percent increase in retirement contributions.
The average tax increases are expected to range from $108 in Morrisville to $464 in Bristol, according to initial projections.
Council Rock, with a possible 7.4 mill increase, finds itself in the middle of the pack with an estimated $280 property tax increase.
"While we place that in front of the board to begin the Act 1 process, it is not a budget that is acceptable to anyone in the Council Rock School District," Superintendent Mark Klein said. District administrators will work over the next few weeks "to significantly reduce that budget and millage increase," he said.
The budget process is in constant motion between now and June, when school boards adopt final budgets. Many variables have to be considered, figured and reconfigured, officials said.
For instance, in Bensalem, the school board had planned to use $2 million in reserve funds to cover expenses during the current school year. But thanks to several cost-cutting measures, including several delayed hires, the reserve funds will not be needed during 2009-10, said Jack Myers, Bensalem's director of business operations.
The Bensalem board might opt to use some or all of those funds to help balance the 2010-11 budget, Myers said.
The six Lower Bucks school boards that did not promise to keep tax increases below their respective index rate now have until mid-February to adopt a preliminary budget that could include the requested exceptions.
All school boards in the state have until June 30 to adopt a final budget for the following school year.
