POTTSTOWN PA – Seven – count ‘em, seven – different budget choices.

That’s what the Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors had in front of it Monday night (June 27, 2011), served up in neatly packaged form and explained by Business Administrator David Nester, before it decided in a 5-4 vote to adopt a $57.32 million final spending plan. During the 2011-2012 school year, it raises property taxes by 1.8 percent.

Truth be told, the budget’s total value by that time was no longer in question. Board members had indicated that, with previously announced salary freezes, staff attrition, and Community Budget Task Force recommendations, they had completed all the fiscal cutting and squeezing they wanted to attempt. The number, $57,324,510 to be precise, was the number.

Instead, the board’s toughest decisions revolved around two variables: whether or not it should bet on Pottsgrove receiving an additional $374,000 next year in basic education funding from the state, and how much (if any) money it was willing to spend of district savings to offset a deficit.

In the end directors placed a moderate bet, and tapped savings for far less than they could have.

Nester presented these scenarios:

• Option 1) Requested by board President Michael Neiffer to determine his colleagues’ willingness to consider deficits, it proposed unprecedented immediate relief for taxpayers’  wallets: no tax increase. It also left out any additional state funding. As a result, the budget would have carried a $1.1 million deficit to be covered by a withdrawal from savings. That would have drained the district fund balance to 5.13 percent, only a whisker above the recommended minimum.

• Option 2) Identical to Option 1, and also requested by Neiffer, except it included the state money. The resulting deficit would drop to $725,000; the fund balance to 5.78 percent.

“They’re really not viable options,” Nester said of both, “and next year we’d have to make pretty drastic cuts.” Directors took a pass.

• Option 3) Proposed a 1.8-percent tax increase without state funding, a deficit of $466,000, and a fund balance of 6.23 percent.

• Option 4) 1.8 percent, with state funding, a deficit of $90,000, and a fund balance of 6.88 percent. Ultimately, this was the preferred and split-vote-approved choice of the board majority. The unknown here is the state. If Pennsylvania fails to come through with the anticipated cash that represents Nester’s well-researched best guess, directors effectively accepted Option 3.

The district is financially sound, directors uniformly agreed, and seemingly in better fiscal shape than its neighbors, they said. The board’s divisions focused on whether now was the time to use some of the money saved over several years to ease taxpayers’ burdens.

The 1.8 percent tax hike matches a proposal made earlier this month by director Philip Keogh, which died in a 4-4 board tie with one member absent. It also is identical to the tax increase cap, known as the Act 1 index, imposed on Pottsgrove by the state for the coming year.

• Option 5) A 2.8-percent tax increase without state funding, a deficit of $114,000, and a fund balance of 6.88 percent.

• Option 6) 2.8 percent, with state funding, a balanced budget with no deficit, a fund balance of 7.1 percent, and $260,000 set aside as an “inter-fund transfer” that the board might have used to reinstate earlier cuts or spend another way.

Certified public accountant Nester made it clear he hoped the board would choose either of the 2.8-percent proposals. The majority made it clear they thought the taxpayers couldn’t stand the strain.

• Option 7) This was an attempt at compromise; think of it as the peach melba in a field dominated by vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate selections. It proposed a 2.07-percent tax increase, a fund balance of 7.05 percent, abandoned the inter-fund transfer, and anticipated a year-end surplus of $2,100.

Nobody wanted that flavor.

Related (to the Pottsgrove School District 2011-2012 budget):

• Of 7 Final Budget Choices, Pottsgrove Landed In Middle
• Pottsgrove OKs Final Budget: 1.8% Tax Hike, About $74
• ‘Cyber School, Here We Come,’ Pottsgrove Proclaims
• Budget-Motivated Pottsgrove Admin Changes Approved
• 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 27 meeting):

• Of 7 Final Budget Choices, Pottsgrove Landed In Middle
• Pottsgrove OKs Final Budget: 1.8% Tax Hike, About $74

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