Sunday, June 9, 2002
They say there is little they can do except complain about the rising taxes.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- Several Shenango Valley school districts are looking at what -- at first glance -- might be considered modest tax increases to balance their 2002-03 budgets.
The impact of those impending tax burdens takes on new meaning, however, with the realization that the 3- and 4-mill real estate tax increases being proposed are what school officials are calling "new" mills.
Since Mercer County changed its property tax assessment ratio this year from 33.3 percent to 100 percent of assessed property valuation, the new mills are worth triple what they were last year.
They also cost the taxpayer three times as much as the old mill.
Suddenly, a 3- or 4-mill tax increase becomes the equivalent of a 9- or 12-mill increase that some taxpayers say is unreasonable.
It's much larger than most are accustomed to seeing in one year, but they have to pay the bill.
In Pennsylvania, the local school board has the power to set and levy taxes without a vote from the electorate.
School directors have been careful to point out the impact of the millage increases they are considering.
Still, some like Harry Sheppard of Dogwood Lane in Hermitage, where the school board is looking at a 4-mill tax increase, wasn't aware of the difference in the value of a mill.
"I certainly have concerns about it," he said, but added there is little the taxpayers can do.
Here's why
The school board has incurred substantial debt in a $25 million expansion and renovation of Hickory High School and that bill must be paid, Sheppard said.
"The amount is excessive, but you have to pay your debts," the Westinghouse Electric Corp. retiree said.
Bill Tesh, owner of Hermitage Central Barber Shop, takes a dimmer view of the tax picture.
"We're not happy with it. It just can't go on this way," he said, suggesting that teacher salaries, which make up the biggest chunk of the school district budget, are getting too high and too costly.
Hermitage school officials have vowed to reduce the size of the tax increase in the final version of the budget.
Sheppard said his main concern is Pennsylvania's emphasis on real estate taxes as the main source of local revenue to fund school districts.
"I just feel there has to be a fairer way to generate the revenue," he said, noting that he reared five children who are no longer in school yet his property tax burden continues to grow.
School directors have pointed their fingers at the state, saying Pennsylvania has failed to live up to its promise to pay 50 percent of the cost of educating public school pupils.
School districts have been getting annual increases of 3 percent and 4 percent in their basic instructional subsidies from the state in recent years.
The state budget for 2002-03 is tight and, so far, the state has promised only a 1 percent subsidy increase, which means more of a burden on the local taxpayers as educational costs increase, school officials have said.
School directors in Sharon were initially looking at the equivalent of a 4.81 "new" mill increase, equal to 14.43 of last year's mills.
Sharon officials have been able to pare that down to a proposed increase of 3 "new" mills next year, but are basing that figure on getting more state subsidy and some other factors.
Like Hermitage, Sharon has a substantial debt to pay off for school building improvements, having borrowed $28 million so far.
The school board is expected to borrow an additional $3.1 million for similar work this week and could borrow as much as $7.6 million more if it decides to make improvements to its Case Avenue Elementary School.
"It's the senior citizens I worry about," said Carol Swartz of Lorain Street, Sharon, an office secretary. "How can they afford this?
"What are we paying this increase for?" she asked, adding that the Sharon City School Board should be concentrating on issues other than building improvements.
Creating a viable middle school to separate seventh-, eighth- and perhaps ninth-graders from upperclassmen should be one of them, Swartz said.
"What can we do about it? Just sit and listen and vent to ourselves," she said.
Things are a lot tougher in nearby Reynolds School District, where the school board introduced a tentative budget calling for a 12.25 "new" mill increase for next year.
That's equal to 36.75 of the old mills and leaves taxpayers facing a 25 percent jump in their school property tax bills.
Less subsidy than expected, four years of running at a deficit that wiped out the district's savings, and someone's forgetting to add $1.2 million in student transportation costs to the expense side of the budget when it was first prepared left the board facing a $2 million deficit for the 2002-03 school year.
A big tax increase and the elimination of 28 jobs are the proposed solutions, although school officials there said the tax increase will probably be cut to at least 11 "new" mills in the final version of the budget.
Major questions
"How do you forget $1.2 million?" asked Norman Morrison, a farmer who lives on Mortimer Road, Transfer.
"I hope and pray they are working on cuts that can be made," he said, suggesting further reductions are more favorable than such a large tax increase.
"Somewhere along the line, we're going to have to cut some programs. Someone's going to have to tighten their belt," Morrison said. "It's my gut feeling there are plenty of people like me disgusted with it."
Warren Aul, a retired millworker from Maysville Road, Pymatuning Township, is one of them. He also lives in the Reynolds district.
"It's going to be devastating. I can't understand what is happening," Aul said, pointing out that many local taxing bodies are looking at sizable tax increases this year.
School district reliance on the state for increased income gives local taxpayers a false impression that money is coming from outside their communities to help pay for education, he said.
"Their state money comes from the same pocket as the local money," he said.
Aul said he would like to see a cap on teacher salaries and suggested that real estate taxes on property should decrease as buildings and structures get older, not increase as years go by.