Washington OKs tax increase in preliminary budget
Notice: Undefined variable: article_ad_placement3 in /usr/web/cs-washington.ogdennews.com/wp-content/themes/News_Core_2023_WashCluster/single.php on line 128
The Washington School Board is asking state Department of Education for permission to raise property taxes above the inflationary rate for next school year because of increasing contributions to its retiree pensions.
The school board voted unanimously Monday to request the 5-mill tax increase from the state for its preliminary $25.49 million operating budget for the 2014-15 school year. The owner of a home assessed at $50,000 would pay an additional $62.50 with the tax hike.
Washington Director of District Operations Rick Mancini said the budget and proposed tax increase are only in the preliminary stages and officials hope to have no rate hike by the time they pass the final budget in June.
The current budget represents a 2.5 percent increase over last year, Mancini said. About 75 percent of that increase, which equals about $480,000, is because of the skyrocketing contributions districts are required to make to the public pension plan.
“It’s all due to the retirement. The retirement system has just been a political football,” Mancini said. “The Pennsylvania pension system is underfunded and now it’s time to pay the piper. It’s what has been eating up all the money for state education over the past few years and going forward.”
He said the district had to include the tax increase in its preliminary budget because of concerns about education funding coming from the state in the Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget, which will be released next week. He said the district hopes to remove any tax increase from the plans if state funding remains steady or increases.
“Hopefully they don’t cut anything because there are so many rumors out there about what the governor will do,” Mancini said.
School district officials must notify the state of their intention to increase the rate above the normal inflationary rate now in order to avoid putting the increase on the ballot.
If the school board passes the preliminary budget in its current form, the property tax rate would increase from 133 mills to 138 mills.
The budget must be passed before June 30.