LT board rejects tax hike

BY MICHAEL J. RUDOLF

Wyoming County Press Examiner

FACTORYVILLE - The Lackawanna Trail School Board approved a budget Monday calling for almost no tax increase.

Citing a desire to help property owners in difficult economic times, the board brought the tax hike as close to zero as it could, while still keeping the budget balanced.

"We're trying to come up with a plan that takes in mind the taxpayers," said board member Dan Naylor.

"It's about time we didn't raise the taxes," added board member Jacque Petherick.

The actual tax rate for the 2009-2010 school year will be 65.89 mills for the Wyoming County portion of the district, up 0.3 of a mill from the previous year. The Lackawanna County part of the district will see a rate of 129.04 mill, up 0.12 of a mill.

A mill is a $1,000 tax on each $1 of assesses property value.

Business manager David Homish said this rate cause a "miniscule" increase in taxes, less than a dollar for the average property owner over the course of the year.

The board voted 8-1 on tax rate budget, with Frank Tylutki opposing it.

To get to this tax rate, the board agreed to a budget totaling $17,947,549 - more than $100,000 less than the preliminary spending plan passed earlier this year. Tylutki was also the only opposition on this vote.

The budget was reduced by eliminating the district's budgetary reserve for the year. Homish said. That's an account included in the budget for unexpected expenditures or increases in costs.

Homish said the district can get around having a budgetary reserve for a year by using money from the tax anticipation note it typically borrows at the beginning of every fiscal year. The note is a loan taken out to pay expenses before tax payments start coming in. Because of interest rates, Homish explained that it is usually to the district's benefit to wait until the end of the year to pay the loan back.

If the board didn't cut the reserve fund, the district was looking at considerably higher tax increases. The millage would have gone up by 1.38 mills in Wyoming County and 2.24 mills in Lackawanna County. That would have meant a $32 annual increase to the average property owner.

In drafting the budget, Homish said he cut everything possible to get costs in line with what the amount of money the district expects to bring in.

"This whole budget is based on revenue, not expenditures. We can't do any better on expenditures," Homish said.

Part of the problem is that the district must base its budget partially on revenue it expects to get from the state. But because the governor and the legislature are in dispute over the state budget, those figures aren't available yet. So Homish said he had to do a lot of guessing and estimating.

It's possible that the state could come through with more money than expected, he said, in which case the district will fare better. However, Homish said he wasn't going to count on that.

In other business, the board hired Betty Jo Bergey as a full-time elementary substitute teacher at a salary of $40,071, and Heather Bradley as a full-time secondary substitute teacher at $44,028.

The board also re-appointed Petherick as its treasurer, and board member Judith Johnson as secretary at annual stipends of $600 each. Both said they would donate their stipends back to the district to be spent on student activities.

Sandra Boyle was re-appointed the district's solicitor at a stipend of $115 per hour for all legal services and monthly meetings.

Also, the board accepted the resignation of Heather Bluhm as junior varsity field hockey coach. Bluhm was then appointed as a volunteer assistant field hockey coach.