Budget proposal includes tax hike

Installment plan approved with extended due date

A 2020-21 budget with a 2.6 percent tax increase is now one vote away from being finalized, as is an increased tax rebate for certain low-income residents and an extended deadline for payments.

The district’s school board voted Tuesday to adopt a $275 million preliminary budget, expand the district’s tax rebate program, clearing the way for a final vote in June.

“I appreciate the board’s actions on all three items this evening,” said district Superintendent Curt Dietrich.

“That final action, on the installments, I think is a very significant attempt by North Penn’s school board, and school administration, to be able to provide additional opportunities for people to deal with the COVID,” he said.

Last week the school board saw the latest version of the proposed 2020-21 budget, which started in January with total expenses of $282.5 million and a deficit of roughly $12.8 million. An update in late March widened the projected deficit to $14.5 million after sudden drops in revenue from interest earnings due to the coronavirus crisis, and in mid-April the deficit had narrowed slightly to $13.1 million by pre-purchasing roughly $1.3 million in student laptops in the current budget year. The most recent draft in early May cut the expenses down to $275.8 million, largely by eliminating 19 proposed new staff hires,

and updated projected revenues to $264.7 million before the tax increase. A tax increase at the state-permitted Act 1 index level of 2.6 percent would generate $4.7 million in new revenue, which combined with budget variances and unspent reserves could narrow the year-end deficit to as little as $2.2 million, while the increase would raise taxes by $100 for the average district resident.

The board voted unanimously to approve the preliminary budget with no discussion, and the only public comments came from resident Bill Patchell, who said the board should be concerned about the impact that increase could have on taxpayers.

“Act 1, I don’t care what the numbers say, here’s what’s going to happen: you’re going to raise your taxes, the landlords are going to raise their rent, the people who can’t afford the rent, they’re going to get behind on the rent,” said Patchell.

“They’re going to get behind, they’re going to throw them out of the house, the kid’s going to be crying, ‘Where are we going to go?’ There’s a human cost to this stuff,” he said.

In a separate vote just after the budget vote, the board also approved an increase in the district’s real estate tax rebate program from 40 to 50 percent of a similar state rebate. The rebates go to those who meet certain low-income thresholds, and in 2018 the district began offering the rebates at 25 percent of the state rebate, increased that level from 25 to 30 percent in 2019, then voted in February 2020 to expand it to 40 percent of the state amount, before raising the rebate level once more to 50 percent in early May due to the coronavirus crisis.

District Director of Business Administration Steve Skrocki added that the latest version of the rebate program covers homeowners, hybrid property owners, renters, and for the first time also includes supplements as issued by the state.

“It completely aligns with the state program,” board President Tina Stoll said.

A third unanimous vote ratified another action discussed at last week’s finance committee meeting: to expand the installments available for residents to pay those taxes from the current three to six, and extend the due date to Dec. 15 instead of the usual Oct. 31 due date.

Stoll asked if the local municipal tax collectors would send notice with tax bills about the extended installment plan, and Skrocki said his staff have already begun talks with those tax collectors on doing so.

“We have the wheels in motion to make sure we will be all set to go for the July 1 issuance of the bills,” he said.

A final vote on the 202021 budget adoption is scheduled for the board’s meeting at 7 p.m. on June 18 and the board is scheduled to next meet at 7 p.m. on May 21. Both meetings will be held online and for more information visit www. NPenn.org.