Brian Hagberg
RUSSELL, Pa. – The Warren County School District Board of Directors will vote on whether to move forward a budget with a half-mill tax increase at its regular board meeting on June 13.
During Monday’s finance committee meeting, the committee moved forward a recommendation to present the full board with a “2022-2023 final budget with a half-mill increase for the June 13, 2022, board meeting.” The recommendation came after Director of Business Services Jim Grosch explained that the district would lose $221,206 in revenue without the tax increase.
That loss is due to a nearly $4 million decrease in assessed property values in the county. Grosch said the decrease was caused by a combination of tax appeals and lost property, “but mostly tax appeals.”
“Because of the fact that we’ve lost so much money on tax appeals in assessed values (and) in looking at this analysis, I thought $211,000 is approximately half a mill right now,” Grosch said. “I just wanted to show you what impact the half a mill has and that it really keeps us flat if you will from where we were last year with taxes.”
Grosch added that a half-mill increase on a property assessed at $30,000 would equal a $15 tax increase over last year.
“I’ve always been wanting to keep it at zero (increase),” board member Marcy Morgan said. “But if we could just keep up a little bit and it’s not too hurtful to our community. I would be on board with that.”
Donna Zariczny, filling in for committee member Cody Brown, concurred with Morgan’s assessment.
“This is the one time during the year that we have the ability to increase taxes,” Zariczny said. “And it never gives us the opportunity again after this if we don’t. I’m in agreement with Jim’s second chart that he showed us where, by no fault of our own, we’re going to be in a deficit of $221,206 from where we should be from a tax revenue standpoint. And if we increase by half a mill we can balance that back out.”
Committee chair Arthur Stewart said that he respected the logic behind the argument for the half-mill increase, but was unable to support even a minor tax increase this year.
“I know it’s not a large tax increase, but I don’t think we’ve done the homework to look at potential cuts in the way that we normally have,” Stewart said. “We haven’t gone through the add and deduct process where we do the due diligence to take a careful look at what could be scrubbed. And before we would impose a tax increase I think we would owe that.”
Stewart also referred to a 2017 situation involving the Erie School District. The district found itself in a financial crisis to which the state government responded by providing the district an extra $14 million annually.
“And my irrational, rational reason (for no tax increase) is to put the pressure on the same people that rewarded the Erie School District for behavior that I think might be fairly characterized as less responsible than our own over the years,” Stewart said.
He also pointed to the budget issues caused by the state funding formula and suggested that using the ESSER dollars in hand to cover the current shortfall could be a way for the district to bring attention to the plight of rural school districts.
“We are suffering under the formula that is being imposed on us where our state funding is going to be ratcheted down,” Stewart said. “I think while we have the extra money in hand, we’d be wiser to not raise taxes and turn the heat up and to put the pressure on undoing a terribly unfair formula for us.”
The committee asked Grosch to bring a budget document with a half-mill increase for consideration. The final budget must be approved by the end of June.
“So the budget is set to be approved on June 27,” Grosch said. “I could do one of two things. I could come with a half a mill and a zero increase. There’s plenty of time to change your mind if you so choose. Earlier better than later, but either way it would work out.”
Wanting to see the options a half-mill increase would bring, committee member Jeff Dougherty became the majority vote to move the item forward for full board review.
“I like to see it go forward with a half-mill increase just so that we understand where we’re going when we get to the June meeting,” Dougherty said. “If we decide at that time we’re not going to do the half mil we can.”
