Across Allegheny County, districts cited their 2009-10 budget year as one of the most difficult to balance. Mt. Lebanon officials approved a small increase this year -- $30 on a $100,000 home, equaling a 1.26 percent hike -- but the district's projections for the next five years are much more foreboding.
Jan Klein, director of business services for Mt. Lebanon, which is preparing to build a new $100 million high school, said school taxes could rise 19 to 45 percent by the 2014-15 school year in a worst-case scenario. Not all of the increase is tied to the new high school. Typical operating costs, such as teachers' pensions and how the district will pay for them, are responsible for a portion.
Link: www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_633297.html
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Monday, July 13, 2009
2 comments:
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"...school taxes could rise 19 to 45 percent by the 2014-15 school year in a worst-case scenario."
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of misleading #%&$*&%!
The 19% increase assumes no High School Project debt and no increase in the retirement contributions. Based on the information available today this option has less than .0001 chance of happening.
Today's most likely case (45% increase) includes $117 in new debt for the high school and an increase in retirement contributions.
Both cases included other normal year-over-year increases.
Neither case includes recurring funding for retiree healthcare.
Of course they could be counting on reassessments to contribute something in terms of revenue. Neither the Municipality or School District sees this as a tax increase, because they don't have to "raise" millage. Their "revenue enhancement" is still a tax increase to me.
The ESTIMATED budget forecasts based on different assumptions are available on the District website.
ReplyDeleteGo to: http://tinyurl.com/MTLSD-Budget-Docs
The estimated forecasts are posted under April 13, 2009.