Board of education increases property taxes in budget

One resident showed up to urge the school board to reconsider the increase.
& lt;a href=mailto:gwin@vindy.com & gt;By HAROLD GWIN & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- The average residential taxpayer in the Sharon City School District will spend an additional $130 next year in school property taxes.
That's what a 7.9-mill property tax increase approved by the school board Monday will cost.
The district's $22,850,700 spending plan, approved in an 8-1 vote with school director Rick Mancino casting the dissenting vote, will raise property taxes to 51.9 mills. It's a $1.6 million spending increase.
One Sharon resident, Maureen Dunn of Case Avenue, showed up at the board meeting to question the size of the 18 percent tax increase.
Her argument
She urged the board to take another look at spending before finalizing the budget, pointing out that a tax increase of that size will hurt elderly people on fixed incomes. Raising taxes won't help attract businesses and new families to Sharon, she said.
Dunn said she realizes that rising health-care costs are a major expense in the new budget, which takes effect July 1 and runs through June 30, 2004, but raising taxes to pay that bill is only a short-term solution.
She urged the board to be more creative in its finances and suggested a committee could be appointed to review all spending to determine if it is really necessary.
School director Dom Russo, a retired teacher, said he understands the plight of retired people on fixed incomes, but the board has already taken a second, third and fourth look at the budget and is faced with more than $1 million in new spending that it has no control over.
What that includes
That includes a $650,000 jump in health care, $245,000 in tuition payments to other schools (primarily charter schools), $268,000 more for debt service and a $229,000 increase in employee retirement contributions.
"It's a terrible increase," agreed Melvin Bandzak, board president. "None of this is pleasant."
The board and administration started out with a $2.1 million shortfall but was able to trim that to about $730,000 in the final version, he said.
Business Manager James Wolf said the average residential taxpayer will see his or her school property tax bill rise from about $723 to about $854 next year. One mill will cost the average taxpayer about $16.50 in the new budget, he said.
Mancino said he voted against the tax increase and the budget because he felt it was just too big a tax burden to place on taxpayers, particularly on top of a 5.5-mill property tax increase enacted by the city of Sharon this year.