Morrisville keeps budget options open
Posted: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 5:31 pm | Updated: 7:36 pm, Tue Jan 29, 2013.
Posted on January 29, 2013
Morrisville School District officials who are working to close a $1 million deficit in the next school year are keeping all options open.Like many districts statewide, Morrisville won’t know, in full, what it’s up against until Gov. Tom Corbett releases his education budget Tuesday.
As of last week, the district was facing a $1 million deficit with expenditures expected to be $18 million and revenue $17 million.
In the meantime, the school board failed to pass a resolution that would have capped a tax increase at 2 percent for fiscal year 2013-14, which is the maximum amount allowed for Morrisville without applying for exceptions or putting the issue to a voter referendum.
The vote wasn’t unanimous, though. School Directors John "Jack" Buckman, Steve Worob and Ron Stout voted in favor of the cap.
The board still has time to apply to the Pennsylvania Department of Education for exceptions to raise school property taxes above the state index. The deadline is March 7.
Just because the district applies for exceptions to Act 1 does not mean it has to raise taxes beyond the limit. In fact, this is the beginning of budget season and there are still several months to craft a final spending plan. The board will vote on a final budget in June. State law requires districts approve a final budget by the end of June.
School taxes in the district have remained stable, at 177.3 mills, since the 2009-10 school year. Since then savings have helped the school district balance the budget. But the $478,550 left in the fund balance won’t cover the district’s shortfall for the next school year.
For salaries and benefits for all employees, the district is expecting to pay $10.87 million. Regular education could cost $7.48 million, with $5.88 million of that covering salary and benefits. Special education looks like it could cost the district $3.67 million, with $1.79 million of that salary and benefits. Vocational education could run $827,443, with $120,000 covering salary and benefits.
In the meantime, the school board failed to pass a resolution that would have capped a tax increase at 2 percent for fiscal year 2013-14, which is the maximum amount allowed for Morrisville without applying for exceptions or putting the issue to a voter referendum.
The vote wasn’t unanimous, though. School Directors John "Jack" Buckman, Steve Worob and Ron Stout voted in favor of the cap.
The board still has time to apply to the Pennsylvania Department of Education for exceptions to raise school property taxes above the state index. The deadline is March 7.
Just because the district applies for exceptions to Act 1 does not mean it has to raise taxes beyond the limit. In fact, this is the beginning of budget season and there are still several months to craft a final spending plan. The board will vote on a final budget in June. State law requires districts approve a final budget by the end of June.
School taxes in the district have remained stable, at 177.3 mills, since the 2009-10 school year. Since then savings have helped the school district balance the budget. But the $478,550 left in the fund balance won’t cover the district’s shortfall for the next school year.
For salaries and benefits for all employees, the district is expecting to pay $10.87 million. Regular education could cost $7.48 million, with $5.88 million of that covering salary and benefits. Special education looks like it could cost the district $3.67 million, with $1.79 million of that salary and benefits. Vocational education could run $827,443, with $120,000 covering salary and benefits.
15 comments:
Buckman, Worob and Stout. The same three horsemen of idiocy riding to the destruction of the school district. I'm so glad we have them to screw us over one more time.
In 2011, the deficit was $2.5 million going into May, and that was under the tutelage of some of the greatest financial wizards in the history of mankind.
In fact, the deficit always seems to be upwards of $1 million at this time of year. Last January (2012), it was about $800,000, which is one of the lowest, if not the lowest, I can recall going back several years
So, I have to ask, what's different this time? Why should we worry?
A recent favorite of mine, having watched the video of the 1/23 Board Business Meeting:
Steve Worob griping about how the taxpayers of Morrisville are going to be saddled with the tab for ... wait for it ...
... releasing about $95,000 in payments to the Tech School that HE AND HIS BOARD BUDDIES DELIBERATELY WITHHELD for the last 2 years or so, leading to a protracted lawsuit that cost untold amounts of time and money, and which the district sure as heck seemed poised to lose.
In her public comments, his ally Marlys Mihok made false claims about the Tech School Business Manager changing the funding formula, false claims that Superintendent Ferrara refuted.
Mr. Ferrara also refuted Worob's claim that releasing these funds would impact the upcoming budget.
Even on the outside looking in, I could see that their case sucked and was based on false pretense.
So, who's really wasting taxpayer money?
"their case sucked and was based on false pretense."
There's the last five years summed up in nine words.
I'm worried about the Head Start Manor Park lawsuit that's still hanging out there. Somewhere between $150,000 to $325,000 is at stake. Another boon to education, courtesy of the Hellmann Board.
In his 1/23/13 gripe, Worob also groused (again) about another contractual obligation he and his Hellmann Board buddies shirked and stopped paying, which led to another lawsuit they were going to lose (at taxpayer expense) before settling out of court, as described in the thread below. Lawyer fees and time and money wasted? Unknown - it's litigation, can't talk about it.
http://mvbulldogbanter.blogspot.com/2012/12/potluck-67.html
Again, all the more reason to vote these jokers out!
"School Directors John "Jack" Buckman, Steve Worob and Ron Stout voted in favor of the cap."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkzMA1jrm00
Add up all the money that SHOULD have been raised with minimal tax increases that happen in normal communities over the last 5 years. Then raise taxes this year to meet that amount and fund our school district properly. It is irresponsible to say well we didn't cause the problem so now we can't fix it. That's what children say.
yes just add up what would have been raised with the act 1 caped amounts over the past five years oh yeah and that election year 10 mil reduction that really screwed us.
Yes Jon I agree the 2010- 2011 2.5 million short fall was a joke, it was a election year stunt. Hey town folk look at me master CPA I chopped down a 2.5 mill short fall to 250,000 and you wonder why he said M&M had to raise taxes because he knew the money was running out. SHAME on you SOC SOT you are the reason there willbe tax incresses this year no one else can be blamed
I reiterate:
The 10 mill SOC tax cut in 2009 (a big School Board election year, by the way) from 187.3 to 177.3 mills is looking incredibly short-sighted, given that we've had to drastically deplete our rainy day funds and we've known all along that we were going to get slammed by PSERS and other rising costs.
1 mill = about $60,000
10 mills = about $600,000
So we could have kept the millage at 187.3 and raised about $600,000/yr in revenue (about $3,000,000 over 5 years). Even if the tax cuts was 5 mills (to 182.3), it would have raised about $1,500,000 more over 5 years.
But noooooooo, SOC had to go for the big splash additional Election Year tax cut, and we're paying the price for it now, as we run $800,000 - $1,000,000/yr deficits, with more PSERS pain to come, tighter Act 1 contraints, and maybe some 6 figure lawsuit payments on tap.
Thanks again, Financial Wizards at SOC.
It takes massive cajones to not only not crawl under a rock in shame, but to rant like jackasses about your failures and screw ups. Give it up SOCing dead-enders, find a rock!!!
I want to know why does Marlis keep going after Wanda Kartal, that woman can't seem to keep Ms. Kartal's name out of her mouth.
Doesn't Ms. Kartal have almost 3 years left in office. I wouldn't call that massive cajones, I would call that plain stupid. Some how I think Marlis is planning to run again. Who ever runs against her needs to point out all her bone head short sighted votes. Any blame for a tax increase, needs to be placed were it belongs on her and her SOC buddies. They cut and didn't allow minimal increases over the past 5 years. So it is all of the members of SOC currently on the board and those booted off that put us were we are today. No fund balance and not enough revenue.
Don't forget her lies lies lies
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