Board gets proposed tax hike down to 1%

SOUDERTON » The proposed tax hike in the Souderton Area School District has been decreased to 1%.

If approved, it would increase the taxes on a home assessed at the district average by a little less than $50.

In April, the Souderton Area School Board approved a proposed 2020-21 budget with a 2.6% tax hike but said more work on the numbers would be done before the final budget vote.

With adjustments having been made to increase projected revenue and decrease expenses, numbers presented by Director of Business Affairs Brian Pawling at the June 3 Finance Committee meeting showed a 2.6% hike would put revenue $1.4 million under expenses, compared to $2.7

million with a 1% hike. To balance the budget, the district will take money from its fund balance reserves.

Asked for his recommendation, Pawling went with 1%.

“I would feel comfortable making a recommendation of an increase around that 1% number,” he said. “I think that would give us the ability to generate a modest amount of revenue to offset our continued expenditures.”

It would also leave a projected little over $10 million in the fund balance at the end of the budget year, which is comparable to what the district has had in the past, he said.

Finance Committee Chairwoman Donna Scheuren said she appreciates all the work put into what has been a challenging budget preparation.

“I would be amenable to your recommendation of 1 percent, but I also would like to ask that you continue to work on it to reduce it even further,” she said.

“Let’s keep at it. Let’s keep in touch. We have a couple weeks still for this board to be able to see what else can be done.”

Committee member Matt Holliday said he agrees with having a 1% or less tax hike and said the projected $10 million fund balance is a healthy amount.

“We’re in unprecedented times right now and residents within the community, they’re losing their jobs, they’re having pay cuts, so they’re going through a tough time, so I think it’s certainly a time where we need to try to limit what the increase would be as much as possible, but at the same time, just like the residents are going through tough times, so is the district, and so, really, it’s tough. It’s a balancing act,” he said, “so we need to be sensitive to the residents, but at the same time, we don’t want to put ourselves into a position where it’s gonna get that much worse in years to come, so it is a balancing act.”

With a 1% tax hike, the numbers show $129,676,951 of revenues and $132,424,559 of expenses, giving a $2,747,608 deficit. The projected fund balance at the end of the year would be $10,048,798.

The current property tax rate is 30.0495 mills, putting the bill for a home assessed at the district median of $156,110 at $4,691. Each mill equals $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed property value.