POTTSTOWN PA – Approval of the Pottsgrove School District’s final budget for 2011-2012 will be delayed until almost the last minute, after the Board of School Directors split Tuesday (June 14, 2011) in a 4-4 tie over a proposal that could have lowered next year’s real estate tax increase to a locally unprecedented 1.8 percent.
As it now stands, the board’s last approved budget – its “tentative” $57.3 million spending plan accepted May 10 – carries a 2.8-percent property tax hike that Business Administrator David Nester said would cost the average Pottsgrove home owner an additional $115 next year.
That’s low compared to tax increases discussed in neighboring districts, but it could be lower still.
Directors were equally divided over a suggestion by board member Philip Keogh that would have sliced the tentative budget’s tax increase by about a third, to an average of $74. Keogh proposed the board take money directly from undesignated reserve funds, the district savings accounts, and use them to both cover an anticipated $300,000 budget deficit and further whittle down the increase.
His plan counted, in part, on Nester’s belief that the state Legislature will restore before September about $375,000 in district funding previously cut by Gov. Tom Corbett. But even if that money didn’t come through, Keogh said, the district could still pay the difference with cash in the bank; money, he noted, that district taxpayers had already put up.
Three other directors – David Faulkner, Fred Remelius, and Jodi Adams – voted with Keogh in favor of the plan. Four opposed it: Nancy Landes, Patti Grimm, Scott Fulmer, and Michael Neiffer. Director April Kontostathis was absent (she had previously announced she would be unavailable), and so the proposal, which needed 5 votes to pass, died.
Final budget approval must be made before June 30; the board has scheduled a June 27 meeting for that purpose.
Related (to the Pottsgrove School District 2011-2012 budget):
- Plan To Further Cut Pottsgrove Tax Hike Dies In Tie
- Pottsgrove Cuts Admin Job Among Leadership Changes
- Pottsgrove Plans For Re-Assignments A Budget-Saver?
- Teamsters Agree, Too, On Wage Freeze For Pottsgrove
- Does Pottsgrove Have An Administrative Cut-In-Waiting?
- Red And Yellow Items Left On Pottsgrove Budget Table
- Pottsgrove OKs 2.8% Tax Hike In Tentative Budget
- Local School Boards Face Both Cuts And Policy Changes
- Pottsgrove Chinese Language Students Face Cuts Again
- Pottsgrove Task Force Didn’t Shelve Pay-To-Play Plan
- Committee: Charter School May Save Pottsgrove $70K
- Pottsgrove Paying $28K Next Year For MCIU Support
- Secretary Says Schools Must Find Funds Themselves
- College Students Protest Proposed Ed Budget Cuts
- Pay Freeze Endorsed As Pottsgrove Labor Talks Start
- Pottsgrove High Protesters Exercise Art Of Compromise
- Pottsgrove’s Landis Distributes State Fund Comparison
- Pottsgrove Budget Deficit Balloons With Gov’s Proposal
- MCIU Budgets On Pottsgrove Schools Agenda Tonight
- PA House OKs ‘Cut And Replace’ On Education Funding
- Idea: Other Local Schools Consider Extracurricular Fees
- Idea: Pottsgrove Might Prosper With Own Charter School
- Pooling Resources Could Save Pottsgrove On Special Ed
- Like Pottsgrove Task Force, Outsiders Weigh Cost Vs. Value
- Task Force Crowd Packs Into Pottsgrove For First Session
- School Budget Task Force Kicks Off Its Work Tonight
- Does Western PA School Tax Uprising Foretell Mood Here?
- Pottsgrove Schools Budget Short Another $400,000
- Pottsgrove, As Expected, Adopts Budget First Draft
- Pottsgrove Tentative Budget Adoption Expected
- Weather Postpones Pottsgrove Budget Meeting
- Still Time In Pottsgrove For Budget Volunteers To Enlist
- Challenge To Pottsgrove Budget Advisers: 10 Percent
- Best Guesses, Deficit Launch Pottsgrove Budget Season
- Senate Education Chair Preps For Voucher, Choice Battle
- School Board Questions Pottsgrove Recreation Costs
- Pension Reform Vote Could Benefit Pottsgrove, Others
- Notebook Worthy: News Reporters Made News Tuesday
- Pottsgrove Isn’t Waiting In Search For Budget Volunteers
- If You’ve Got A Budget Idea, Pottsgrove Says It’ll Listen
- Pottsgrove Seeks More Public Input On District Budget
Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ June 14 meeting):
Enough already. For once let’s accomplish something that benefits all Pottsgrove residents and lower taxes. We don’t all need to pay for the errors of some and why not a break for those who DON’T have children in the schools. It’s one thing to pay more to get more to get more but this is not the case.