Feb 25, 2017 3 min read

McGuffey School Board Thursday evening became the second local school district in 10 days to cut the pay of its tax collectors.

The board decided to stick with the resolution it approved Jan. 19 to change the way the district’s eight collectors will be compensated. McGuffey will go from paying a commission on taxes collected to paying $1.50 for each tax statement that is mailed. The change will take effect in January 2018, and is projected to save the district an estimated $100,000 per year.

At the next board meeting, Feb. 16, there was a motion that was seconded to rescind the January resolution. That motion sparked discussion within the board, which decided to suspend the meeting for one week. The compensation issue was the only item on the agenda Thursday, and following a 45-minute executive session, the directors announced they were going with the measure they approved five weeks earlier.

This occurred after the Central Greene board reduced the pay of six tax collectors Feb. 14, saying it will save the district $22,000. The board president said those collectors were being paid different amounts per parcel of land, and would now all be compensated $5.50 per parcel. One collector said her part-time pay was being cut 19 percent.

Tax collectors are elected officials, not school district employees.

Thursday’s meeting at McGuffey High School drew an audience of about 30, many more than the number who typically attend board meetings. Tax collectors and supporters predominated, with six stepping to the podium to address the directors. They pleaded their cases calmly but firmly during the public comments period before the decision.

Morris Township secretary Kathy Lesnock was upset with how the board notified the collectors. “I received a notice Feb. 8,” she said. “I think that a call that (the board) would be discussing this would have been the right thing to do. There are eight or nine townships that may feel a serious negative impact.”

Eric Donnelly, real estate tax collector for Buffalo Township, stepped to the dry-erase board and wrote figures from a Pennsylvania Economy League study, showing three ways tax collectors could be paid. He said the three sets of numbers showed the district’s tax collectors were already being paid an equivalent and fair amount. “We’re right in line with these numbers.”

Donnelly also cited a Pennsylvania Supreme Court case from 2012, Telly v. Pennridge School District, in which the court decided “it is beyond the boards’ power to transform the local tax collection system by reducing compensation levels to such a degree that the elected Tax Collectors are unable to fulfill their responsibilities; such systematic change must come from the Legislature.”

“Such a system change,” Donnelly said, “must come from the Legislature. From what I’m reading, (the board’s action) is a misapplication of the law.”

Morris Township tax collector Marissa King said, “I have a question. Where did the $1.50 amount come from?”

Board President Carl Group said questions weren’t permitted during a comment period.

Adjournment followed shortly after the decision. Following the meeting, King – with one year’s service, the newest of the district’s eight tax collectors – said she will be losing about 90 percent of the pay she will still earn this calendar year.

“This is definitely a blow,” she said.