REYNOLDS SCHOOLS District will revise budget

A common pleas judge refused to give the district the tax increase it requested, saying its figures weren't reliable.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
TRANSFER, Pa. -- Financial conditions in the Reynolds School District are worse than first reported.
School officials announced in May they were $2 million short on revenue needed to balance a proposed $14.5 million budget for 2002-03.
At a school board meeting Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Trosan, superintendent, said that figure didn't include a $1.5 million tax anticipation note borrowed last year that is due Sunday.
The district won't be able to pay it off at one time and is making arrangements to pay it back over a three-year period, he said.
The board borrowed the money to pay bills when tax revenues were low. It was to be paid back with tax funds but, as 2001-02 comes to a close, the district finds it doesn't have the money to pay it off, Trosan said.
The tentative budget introduced in May called for a 12.25-mill property tax increase and the furloughs of 12 teachers, eight special-education aides, several cafeteria monitors, the director of curriculum, the attendance-office worker and two security guards.
Three teaching vacancies and one technology assistant opening caused by resignations won't be filled.
Trying to hold down taxes
The tax increase, combined with all of those cuts, would balance the budget, but school officials have been working on other cuts to reduce the size of the tax increase.
The school board was handed a petition Monday signed by 700 residents opposed to that increase.
Because Mercer County changed its property tax assessment ratio from 33.3 percent to 100 percent of a property's assessed value, the revenue generated by 1 mill of tax is now tripled for all taxing bodies in the county, including school districts.
That put Reynolds' millage at 43 going into the new budget, and state law prohibits a school district from increasing its taxes by more than 10 percent when a change in assessment is made.
Reynolds was looking at a 28 percent tax increase in the tentative budget and was required to go to Mercer County Common Pleas Court to get permission to exceed the 10 percent mark.
The board filed a petition a month ago asking the court for the 12.25 mills in a $14.5 million budget but, as further cuts were made, that number dropped to 6.25 mills at one point.
When the court hearing opened Wednesday, however, the increase was back up to 12 mills in a $14 million budget.
Trosan said that was because the revised numbers showed the district starting to pay back the tax anticipation note.
Estimating value
There also was a problem with estimating the value of 1 mill of tax, he said.
The district had been using a figure of $75,000 but the actual amount may be as low as $69,000 and that makes a difference on how many mills are needed, he said.
President Judge Francis J. Fornelli refused to make any ruling on the board's request.
He sent school officials back to the drawing board, advising them to come up with reliable figures the court can use in determining how much of a tax increase is necessary.
Judge Fornelli told The Vindicator he wouldn't give school directors a blank check to throw money at a problem without the district's knowing how it would straighten out its fiscal woes.
Trosan said the board hopes to be able to present a revised budget plan to the judge at another hearing at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. If the court approves it, the school board will meet at 7:30 p.m. that evening to pass it, he said.
Meanwhile, the board continued to whittle away at the spending plan, voting to eliminate about three dozen assistant coaching and club advisory positions as well as curriculum development chairmen and the golf program.
Those changes will save about $57,000 a year, Trosan said.
The board also voted to furlough curriculum director JoAnn Bova and approved a modified student transportation contract with AC-School Services Inc. that will cut transportation costs by $21,000 a year.