FARRELL City resident asks board of education about fund balance

The Roemer Boulevard man asked how school directors who haven't paid their own tax bill can vote to raise taxes.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- Sam Rado wants to know what the Farrell Area School District is doing to cut spending.
The Roemer Boulevard man, concerned with a 4-mill property tax increase this year and prospects for another tax increase next year, spoke out at Monday's school board meeting, asking what is being done to stop the erosion of the district's fund balance.
A fund balance is a savings account for school districts where money is set aside for unanticipated major expenses.
The school board has been taking money from that account to balance its budgets for the past several years, and a fund balance that was nearly $1 million three years ago is only about $365,000 today.
Rado was also critical of school directors who vote for tax increases when they aren't paying their own property taxes.
He didn't name any names, but School Director Jerome Flint said he is "probably one of those persons" who pays their taxes late.
Flint said he voted for the tax increase this year because he feared the state would take over the district if the board didn't come up with more revenue.
That would mean loss of local control of the educational system, he said.
Flint said that board members who pay their taxes late must also pay a penalty so they are, in effect, paying more.
Hired company
Flint noted the district has aggressively pursued tax delinquents, even hiring a company to go after them.
Superintendent Richard Rubano said he is awaiting a report now from that company to see how well it is doing.
A Feb. 3 story in The Vindicator quoted school officials as saying the Pittsburgh law firm of Maiello, Andrews & amp; Price, hired in January 2000 to go after $630,000 in delinquent property taxes, had turned over just $9,347 to the district.
Rubano said he's pleased that the company has been able to get anything and that every dollar helps.
He told Rado that Farrell has done everything it can to control spending and to secure state and federal grants.