Jun 10, 2013 2 min read

Beware taxpayers in the Trinity Area School District. You are about to get hammered with tax increases. In the Saturday edition of the Observer-Reporter, Trinity’s business manager, David Russo, presented a possible eight-year budget plan. Russo said the district’s budget deficit had to be solved by a combination of revenue increases and fiscal responsibility. Incredibly, he added, the district should consider raising taxes by two mills per year for the next eight years. That’s 16 mills! Wow! And he further added insult to injury by saying that the increases are less than 2 percent per year which is less than the rate of inflation. Great!

Here’s the problem with Mr. Russo’s plan: In North Franklin alone, over 60 percent of the residents are on fixed incomes. Most of those are living on Social Security and whatever savings they have accumulated. The government gives them a cost of living increase each year and then takes it away by increasing Medicare costs. It is outrageous to propose a 16 mill tax increase over eight years, and it represents a very scary prospect for taxpayers.

Give the teachers the necessary tools to educate students and, with a budget of $45 million, Trinity needs to focus on providing its teachers and other employees with necessary cost of living increases. However, the district also needs to sharply curtail costs in areas of less importance and cut everything considered non-essential. It is the board’s responsibility to review the educational priorities while protecting the taxpayers. There are ways to save money. Before this next school board considers the Russo budget, which could end up putting more of our residents on a direction out of the district, maybe they should consider a plan which focuses on protecting the taxpayers who elected them to be responsible with our property taxes.

Finally, that proposed 16 mill tax increase, coupled with an upcoming county reassessment, could result in total financial devastation to many property owners in North Franklin Township and the Trinity Area School District as a whole.

Bob Sabot

North Franklin Township