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Tax hike gets go-ahead in South Side

The South Williamsport Area School Board on Monday unanimously approved the 2017-18 final budget for the district, reflecting a 0.65-mill real estate tax increase.

The increase means a $65 tax increase on an average home valued at $100,000.

The district’s Act 1 Index is 0.5 mills, which means that the district exceeded the index.

The district previously applied for referendum exceptions for retirement and special education in order to go over the index.

In the final budget, the total expenditures are $19,525,409. Revenue totals $18,955,366.

The district is projected to use $570,043 from committed and uncommitted fund balance.

The final budget numbers reflected the same numbers as the preliminary budget did a month ago.

The main issue that required the board to raise taxes is the increase in retirement costs.

Chris Branton, board vice president, said he knew the state has made some adjustments to the retirement system, but those changes cannot come soon enough.

“We’re not going to see much of that for 30 years,” he said. “Until then … even though we’re maximizing the tax increase that we can, as 0.65 (mill) is the maximum we’re allowed by the state, that does not cover the retirement.”

He said the district cannot control that cost.

“It’d be nice if some of that 0.65 (mills) was going towards the schools, education, anything benefitting the students, but it’s really almost all of it going towards retirement and … health care insurance,” Branton said. “Between those two, we’re still in the red with the maximum we’re allowed to increase.”

He said while it’s a benefit that the state has started to look into fixing the retirement issues, it won’t help the district soon enough.

“We’re still not in a terrible position money-wise,” he said. “Every year, we’re in the red, and we keep having to eat at the money we can’t put back. Eventually, it’ll be gone. It certainly won’t last 30 years.”

Gregg Anthony, board member, said he wanted to emphasize that the $570,043 deficit in the budget includes the previous year’s deficit, in which the district did not raise taxes. He said he understood that the district has to take money out of its reserves in order to cover the difference.

Superintendent Dr. Mark Stamm said the committed and uncommitted fund balance was created for the board to cover these issues.

“That’s what it’s for,” he said. “It’s still part of our short-term plan to get through the next three, four years when we are doing a bond refinance. The idea is to free up some of the money in our general fund budget to offset some of those increases.”

In other business, the board unanimously approved the following positions:

• Kelsey Shannon as a high school guidance counselor with a salary of $52,662.

• Melissa Mix as a ninth grade English teacher with a salary of $53,622.

• Jonelle Beaver as an elementary special education teacher with a salary of $44,622.

• James Girardi as an elementary health and physical education teacher with a salary of $55,622.

• John Stiner as a full-time custodian at a pay of $9 an hour effective June 27.

Voting yes were members Chris Branton, Cathy Bachman, Gregg Anthony, Steve Persun and Sue Davenport. Members Nicholas Fiorini, John Engel and Jerry Broskey were absent.

The next school board meeting will be on July 17 at the high school library.

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