{"id":21913,"date":"2014-05-06T11:51:11","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T15:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=21913"},"modified":"2014-05-06T11:58:13","modified_gmt":"2014-05-06T15:58:13","slug":"unionville-likely-to-limit-tax-hike-to-2-66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=21913","title":{"rendered":"Unionville likely to limit tax hike to 2.66%"},"content":{"rendered":"

Questions remain on use of reserve funds, revenue projections<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"KeepCalmUCFSD\"<\/a>EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 If the final number is all but set, how exactly to get there remains a bit up in the air, as consensus seemed to form amongst the Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education Monday night around a blended tax rate increase of about 2.66% for the 2014-15 school year budget.<\/p>\n

But the big question and one likely to come into sharper focus by next Monday night\u2019s board work session is how much of the pension reserve fund to use during the 2014-15 budget year \u2014 a discussion that came to the forefront during the annual public budget hearing. Superintendent of Schools John Sanville and the district\u2019s Director of Business and Operations walked the board and audience \u2014 which was made up of largely of district employees and a single district resident \u2014 with the theme \u201cKeep Calm and Take One Step at a Time.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a averaged increase of 2.66% (2.76% in Chester County and 2.26% in Delaware County \u2014 the difference relates to the differing relative overall property valuations in the two counties) the average home in Chester County (with an assessed value of $263,000) would see a yearly tax increase of $186.78 (or about $15.57 on a monthly mortgage bill). For Delaware County homeowners, the average annual increase would be $127.10, based on an assessed value of $259,000, or $10.59 a month.<\/p>\n

The board will give preliminary approval to the final budget on May 12, with final approval likely on June 16.<\/p>\n

Much of the discussion revolved around continuing the district\u2019s conservative approach toward budgeting, one that generally has resulted in surpluses at the end of the budget year \u2014 and whether it makes sense to budget more tightly and ease the size of tax increase.<\/p>\n

Board finance committee chair Keith Knauss argued that the time has come for \u201ca more realistic\u201d budgeting process, noting that in recent years, surpluses have run as high as $1 million \u2014 although Cochran noted that it was unlikely that the 2013-14 budget would have much of a surplus at all. Knauss wasn\u2019t arguing for changes in expenditures, but rather reworking some of the financial assumptions the district makes on revenue, boosting anticipated transfer and interim taxes and tweaking the anticipated tax collection rate slightly upward. An adjustment, downward, on the cost of new bus purchases \u2014 roughly about $120,000 \u2014 would figure into the equation as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever we do here, we\u2019re giving the administration what it wants (in terms of program)\u201d Knauss said. \u201cI just don\u2019t want us to have to leave the taxpayers bankrupt.\u201d He said he would support a tax rate closer to the state Act 1 limit of 2.1% this year (the district was approved to go beyond this number due to increases in pension and special education costs)\u2014 and would back a higher tax rate next year, if the district ran a deficit this year, which he said he felt was unlikely.<\/p>\n

Not everyone was sold with that logic, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, we might have to have a 4.2% increase next year,\u201d member Eileen Bushelow said.<\/p>\n

Knauss\u2019 opinion appeared initially to be in the minority \u2014 and board member Michael Rock especially objected to changing the methods the district has used to date, methods he noted have left the district in better shape than many of its neighboring districts as pension and health care costs have skyrocketed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re well-managed, and I\u2019d prefer that we stay well-managed,\u201d Rock said.<\/p>\n

However, a number of members expressed concerns about dipping into the PSERS reserve fund \u2014 fund the board set aside earlier, in part funded by savings from bond refinancing efforts to help cope with the current three-year spike in rates, expected to increase by more than $1.5 million per year over the next three years \u2014 wanting to save those funds to spread out the impact of adding a cumulative total of millions of dollars in pension spending to the budget during the current five-year period.<\/p>\n

Board members Kathleen Do, Carolyn Daniels as well as Bushelow expressed concerns about pulling some $329,000 from the PSERS reserve fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing the PSERS reserve fund is dangerous,\u201d Bushelow said, noting that the economy appears to be picking up and that it would be smart to hold onto the funds against future increases. After initially seeming cool to the idea of using more aggressive estimates for revenue, a number of board members \u2014 including Do \u2014 warmed to the idea of using those methods, rather than spending down the reserve funds.<\/p>\n

Board member Jeff Hellrung countered that the fund was set aside specifically to manage the three-year spike in costs \u2014 with 2014-15 being the first year \u2014 and that the $329,000 earmarked represents less than 15% of the funds set aside. He also pointed out that the funds used were the administration\u2019s best estimate of the need in the current year.<\/p>\n

After the discussion, Sanville and Cochran assured the board members that they could generate a number of scenarios with an approximate tax rate of 2.66%, using a number of funding and projection scenarios. In addition, the board will have the option, moving forward to transfer funds as needed in the budget, in the fall, if need be. The May and June votes really only lock in the tax rates, they noted.<\/p>\n

As presented, the 2014-15 isn\u2019t expected to make a material changes \u2014 no cuts to program and only a modest investment in technology infrastructure, as well as starting a 10-year program to effect repairs at the six district schools. While the nearly $76 million spending plan is expected to increase by about $3.4 million, the vast majority of that increase comes from two categories: about $1.6 million in additional funds to the Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS) and a more than $690,000 spike in estimated health care costs. Other cost increases come from special education, a $238,000 increase, insurance, up $122,500, and fuels and utilities, $108,666.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Questions remain on use of reserve funds, revenue projections By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 If the final number is all but set, how exactly to get there remains a bit up in the air, as consensus seemed to form amongst the Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education Monday night around a blended […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[485,144,70,1286],"class_list":["post-21913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-board-of-education","tag-budget","tag-taxes","tag-unionville-chadds-ford-school-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21913","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=21913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}