Tax collectors to receive lower wages in settlement with Central Greene
WAYNESBURG – Five of the Central Greene School District tax collectors will lose 16.5 percent of their salaries under a settlement agreement filed Wednesday in Greene County Court.
However, the one remaining tax collector not involved in the civil suit will keep her $1,879 raise, a move the other tax collectors don’t consider fair.
“We’re satisfied, but not happy,” Wayne Township tax collector Joan Lemley said.
The school board approved the settlement at its Jan. 16 meeting before President Judge Farley Toothman finalized it Wednesday.
The salaries were reduced based on wages set originally at a 1989 board meeting.
The lawsuit was filed last April by tax collectors Joan Lemley of Wayne Township, Karen Stockdale of Washington Township, Linda VanDruff of Whiteley Township, Christine Jarrell of Perry Township and Kayla Balint of Waynesburg. The Franklin Township tax collector, Margie Mason, received a raise under the board’s proposed plan and was not included in the civil suit.
The new salaries under the settlement, which range between $7,836.47 and $11,637.30, will be in effect starting Aug. 1 until July 31, 2022.
“I’ve been a tax collector for over 20 years and have never had a raise of any sort,” Lemley said.
The district, she said, does not take into consideration the amount of work tax collectors do, especially ones that work in rural townships. Lemley will personally collect taxes at someone’s home if they are sick and unable to leave, for example.
“We go out of our way. It just feels like you’re being slapped in the face for going out of your way,” she said.
She said the settlement means their wages are not cut as drastically as they would have been under the board’s plan. Of the five in the suit, salaries had decreased between 23 and 65 percent under the school board’s proposed change. The tax collectors argued this was a “grossly substandard wage” in their court filings.
“It doesn’t sit well. It’s kinda like a slap in the face,” Lemley said.
She said the decision to cut their wages would have been better accepted if the school had reached out to the tax collectors ahead of time. She said in talking with Greene County tax collectors at other districts, they received prior notice before districts decided to switch to a per parcel rate.
“They did not inform us. We had asked for a raise the month before,” she said. “They decided the day before the deadline that this is what they were going to do.”
Waynesburg Borough tax collector Kayla Balint said they’re still satisfied an agreement could be reached.
“We’re happy we could meet in the middle. Obviously, we would prefer not to have our pay cut,” she said. “At least we were able to meet in the middle. Nobody wants to have their pay cut when you think you’re doing a good job.”
She said the issue will continue because the settlement is only valid for four years.
The settlement vacates a decision the Central Greene School Board made last year to change the salaries so each tax collector would make $5.50 per parcel. Four of the six tax collectors attended the subsequent board meeting to voice their displeasure with the reduction in pay. Two months later, the five tax collectors filed their lawsuit.
The district denied the new wages under the proposed $5.50 per taxable parcel rate would have been unreasonable, but settled to “(avoid) the costs and uncertainty of litigation,” Toothman’s order states.
The agenda filed with the complaint shows the original salaries ranging between $9,385 for the Washington Township tax collector to $20,000 for the Franklin Township tax collector.