It’s not etched in stone, but Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board directors are considering an increase in school taxes for the next academic year.
The board approved a proposed preliminary budget during its Jan. 12 work session. As it stands now, the millage rate for Chester County residents would be 27.52 mills, while the rate for Chadds Ford residents — the only Delaware County residents in the district — would be 23.34 mills. Current school taxes are 26.44 mills in Chester County and 22.2 mills in Delaware County.
(A mill is a tax of $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.)
Business Manager Robert Cochran said the reason for having a preliminary budget is for the district to determine whether or not it needs to go to a referendum in order to enact the millage necessary to fund its programs.
The proposed millage increases exceed the state’s Act I index of 1.9 percent — 4.08 percent for Chester County, 5.14 percent for Delaware County — but the district can avoid a referendum by taking advantage of allowable exceptions, according to Cochran.
He said those exceptions, which are expressed in dollars instead of mills, are for monies going toward special education and retirement fund contributions. That combined amount is $1.4 million.
Cochran said the areas for exceptions are growing faster than the current Act I index.
“If we do not, as a district, present to the state, as a preliminary budget, a budget that requires the use of the exception dollars, the state will not approve us having them,” he said.
The business manager added that the district doesn’t have to use those dollars come June when the final budget is approved, but having them in the preliminary budget, “gives the board the opportunity to use them if you choose.”
Superintendent John Sanville interjected, “The only door that we are closing tonight is [going to a] referendum.”
The total budget, as proposed, anticipates revenue at $79.9 million and expenses at $80.9 million.
Cochran said the reserve portion of the assigned fund balance would be used to offset that deficit.
“Once we use that up, it’s to be a balanced budget ongoing from that point forward,” he said.
The timetable for the board’s eventual adoption of a final budget is to approve a preliminary budget on Feb. 17, have a proposed final budget in April, have hearings on that proposal in May, and then adopt the final budget in June.
It’s at that June meeting when the final millage rates will be set. Rates could be lower than the ones currently proposed, Cochran said.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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There is a tax increase every year! The only thing that ever changes is the amount and the words used to justify it.