{"id":1621,"date":"2011-02-09T12:10:40","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T17:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1621"},"modified":"2011-02-09T12:10:40","modified_gmt":"2011-02-09T17:10:40","slug":"unionville-board-likely-to-limit-tax-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1621","title":{"rendered":"Unionville board likely to limit tax hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members seem ready to keep increase to Act I limits<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a>EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 Barring a last-minute change of heart, the Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education seems prepared to limit the tax increase for the 2011-12 school year to just 1.36% in Chester County and 5.04% in Delaware County \u2014 less than half of what state limits could potentially allow for Chester County residents.<\/p>\n

The large variance between two counties comes because of a re-balancing of property values between the two counties \u2014 in previous years, Delco taxpayers have paid lower rates relative to Chester County. For the first time in more than a decade, Chester County\u2019s property values went down.<\/p>\n

During Monday night\u2019s Finance Committee meeting of the board, Finance Chair Keith Knauss polled his colleagues on whether the district would file for two exceptions to the state\u2019s Act I limits for Special Education and pension costs. Taking those exceptions could potentially boost the tax increase to 3.3% in Chester County and 7.06% in Delaware County \u2014 but there doesn\u2019t seem to be much in the way of support for raising taxes that high. For the current budget year, the board opted to only take about half of the maximum tax increase allowable, settling in on a 2.88% tax increase for Chester County residents.<\/p>\n

In fact, none of the board members supported the idea of having a tax increase that high this time around \u2014 the only concerns were about maintaining flexibility during the budgeting process and allowing for unanticipated issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a conservative planner, I\u2019d like to keep options open within the four months of the budgeting process,\u201d board member Jeff Leiser said. \u201cBut raising taxes by 3.3% or 7.06% is unconscionable. At this point, I lean toward keeping it at the Act I limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was some concern about locking the numbers in without having a complete understanding of what the numbers will mean in terms of education programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not comfortable locking in until we know what we\u2019re going to have \u2014 until we know what we can do and what we can\u2019t do,\u201d board member Eilieen Bushelow said.<\/p>\n

Board president Timotha Trigg floated the idea of taking just one of the two exceptions as way to maximize flexibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to be said for keeping options open,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it would be almost a symbolic decision. I can\u2019t imagine the board taking all of the exceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other board members were more vehement about keeping the increase down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m having trouble with even (raising taxes to) the Act I index,\u201d board member Frank Murphy said. He noted that he was concerned about state education funding being cut and the long-term impact of pensions and that additional austerity needed to be embraced to \u201cprovide for the long-term health of the district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knauss has been on the record opposing taking the exceptions and keeping the maximum increase to no more than the Act I limits, and was supported by Paul Price, Corrine Sweeney and Jeff Hellrung. With Murphy and Leiser, the board appears to have a minimum of six votes favoring the lower limit.<\/p>\n

Although opinions could change before a formal vote, the tally appears to be 6-3 against the district applying for the exceptions. While applying and being approved for the exceptions doesn\u2019t require the district to use them in its final budget, setting them aside at this point in the budget process locks them out and guarantees a tax increase of no larger than the Act I index.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members seem ready to keep increase to Act I limits By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 Barring a last-minute change of heart, the Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education seems prepared to limit the tax increase for the 2011-12 school year to just 1.36% in Chester County and 5.04% in Delaware County \u2014 less […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,16],"tags":[113,44,70,24],"class_list":["post-1621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-schools","tag-2011-budget","tag-school-board","tag-taxes","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}