The bad news from Pottsville Area School District keeps on coming.
Although, the news that property taxes are going up again isn’t exactly a shock.
Property Taxes at Pottsville Area School District Going Up
At its May meeting held Tuesday evening, school directors at Pottsville Area approved a motion to adopt the proposed final budget for the 2020-2021 school term.
Directors approved a $39.2 million spending plan for next school term. And in doing that, directors also approved a tax hike of 1.5936 mills. That would raise the property tax millage to 43.5319 for 2020-2021.
School board members approved the proposed final budget by an 8-1 vote. Board member Patrick Moran cast the loan dissenting vote on the budget proposal.
During a Finance Committee meeting held before Tuesday’s regular board meeting, school board member Jerome Urban says the need to raise property taxes is based on a revenue shortfall. That’s the result of a dwindling tax base in the school district.
When homes are demolished, they go off the tax roll, he says.
More Taxes, Less School
The higher taxes next year will happen despite massive proposed cuts to the teacher population, staff, and numerous education and athletic programs. Basically, it’ll be more taxes and less in return.
And during the regular meeting later in the evening, Urban also said, “We are still seeking to find alternate streams of revenue to try and save some of the programs.”
Millage Rates
The proposed new millage means taxes for Pottsville Area School District property owners will go up about $1.60 for every $1,000 in assessed property value.
Packed Virtual House at Pottsville School Board Meeting
Tuesday’s meeting held on the Zoom platform didn’t go as smoothly as the first.
That may have had something to do with the amount of people in virtual attendance.
First, the Zoom conference room capacity was capped at 100. There was no problem hitting that limit.
But then the school didn’t start simulcasting the meeting on its Facebook page as it did last month. The meeting was delayed and then restarted once the Facebook stream started working.
Tuesday’s meeting lasted about 2 hours, 30 minutes. A full hour of that meeting featured public comments read by outgoing Business Manager Brian Manning, who announced his resignation from Pottsville Area at the end of June.
We’ll have more from Tuesday’s meeting later in the day today and the rest of the week:
- Are Pottsville taxpayers being held hostage by this solar panel deal?
- Why did Business Manager Brian Manning resign?
- What and who does Pottsville Area blame for its financial problems? (Hint: They’re not blaming themselves.)
FULL MEETING:
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Just sayin
May 13, 2020 at 11:49 am
They will never take the blame. Jeffy zweibel is a professional finger pointer at this point. It’s everyone else but not him, the guy in charge.
Jalappa Jock
May 17, 2020 at 2:41 am
My 2 cents is, who on this board came up with the idea to drug test minor children with tax payers money. 1st off it’s none of your business what a minor child does on their own time. I’m by no means saying it’s ok for minor children to do drugs. But if you want to test these minor children let’s keep it to the areas of Math, English, Social Studies, Health, Science and how about GYM Class. If you want to teach these kids something how about the Pledge of Allegiance. These tests don’t cost taxpayers any extra then normal. I tell ya what should be done, get a new board who will accept the role and make a budget with their salaries included that will fall in line with the working classes budget. What just the board makes I’m sure we can find 6 or 7 people who will take on this role for a lot less. Let’s be realistic here, everyone of you are overpaid.
Kitty
June 18, 2020 at 7:54 pm
Let’s get real @ property taxes. The school district was scolded by the state a few months back + failure to properly get reimbursement for busing. Now with the pandemic, the burden for increased revenue falls to home owners of which, some, have been out of work for several months. All the scandals this school covers up is a crime in itself. I agree with previous comment. Let’s teach math, pledge of allegiance, etc.