{"id":1750,"date":"2011-02-15T09:52:10","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T14:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1750"},"modified":"2011-02-15T09:52:10","modified_gmt":"2011-02-15T14:52:10","slug":"ucf-board-moves-to-keep-tax-hike-under-1-in-chesco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1750","title":{"rendered":"UCF board moves to keep tax hike under 1% in Chesco"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preliminary budget skips Act 1 exceptions, comes in under limits, cuts overall spending<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a>EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 One might not be a singular sensation when it comes to tax hikes \u2014 but if it ends up being the final tax hike for the Unionville-Chads Ford School District\u2019s Chester County taxpayers, it will represent the smallest tax increase by the district in recent memory.<\/p>\n

The Unionville Board of Education unanimously adopted a preliminary budget Monday night that would represent a net reduction in spending \u2014 taxes will only go up because a reduction in tax collection and some losses of other revenue. If the budget makes it through to June as presented, Chester County residents will see schools taxes go up by .99%, while Delaware County property owners will see an increase of 4.61%. The disparity comes from a rebalancing of property values between the two counties \u2014 averaged out over a decade, tax increases have generally evened out between the two counties.<\/p>\n

The new preliminary budget \u2014 totaling $69,668,266 \u2014 is notably lower than the previous version of the budget, which called for a 3.30% tax increase in Chester County. When it became evident that a majority of the Board of Education supported keeping the budget under the state\u2019s Act 1 limits without exceptions (the exceptions would have allowed the full 3.3% increase), the administration worked to come up with a more austere spending plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing the sentiment about not exceeding the 1.4% Act I limit on top of significant tax bills already, we asked ourselves \u2018can we possibly go lower?\u2019 \u201c Superintendent of Schools Sharon Parker said.<\/p>\n

She noted that spending curbs instituted by the district have shown benefits allowing the district to still maintain educational programs and quality while reigning in costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can say with assurance that 1.0% (tax increase) will allow our current programs to continue,\u201d Parker said. \u201cThis was not a recommendation made easily or recklessly.\u201d She did add that changes in information, including cuts of state aid could change her assessments in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

The biggest variable remains state education funding. Until Gov. Tom Corbett reveals his budget plan next month, school districts around the state are left with a bit of an unknown in their budgeting process. With the state facing an estimated $5 billion budget deficit many are speculating that Corbett, who has pledged not to raise taxes, will be forced to slash education funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big wild card is what we\u2019re going to get from Mr. Corbett,\u201d the board\u2019s Finance Committee chair, Keith Knauss said. Knauss praised Parker and the rest of the administration for \u201ccoming up with such a frugal budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board retains the flexibility to boost the increase to 1.36% in Chester County and 5.04% in Delaware County, but cannot go above those numbers without the approval of a public referendum.<\/p>\n

While there was general support for the revised budget numbers \u2014 all nine board members voted to support it \u2014 there were some questions about whether there were other options.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we go to 1%, we should go away from raising the activity fee,\u201d board member Eileen Bushelow said. \u201cWe should be looking at the other ways we\u2019re taxing our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board member Paul Price said he disagreed, noting that user fees are common, from the Pennsylvania Turnpike to federal parks.<\/p>\n

The final budget must be certified by June 20. The district will hold public budget hearings in early May. Should the state funding numbers turn out to be dire, the district will have the option of seeking public approval for a tax increase beyond 1.36% Chester County and 5.04% in Delaware County \u2014 but the board must file for a public referendum by March 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preliminary budget skips Act 1 exceptions, comes in under limits, cuts overall spending By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 One might not be a singular sensation when it comes to tax hikes \u2014 but if it ends up being the final tax hike for the Unionville-Chads Ford School District\u2019s Chester County taxpayers, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1754,"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-1750","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\/1750","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=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}