Haverford School Board Could Further Increase Property Taxes

The Haverford Township School Board could increase the property tax rate higher than what was first proposed for the 2012-2013 district budget—2.73 percent instead of 2.49 percent—because of a state referendum exception, the district’s business manager told the school board on Thursday night.

which included a 26.6689 millage rate for the 2012-2013 school year that would amount to 2.49 percent property tax increase, compared to 2011-2012.

But since the final Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement
System (PSERS) referendum exception came in higher than the district’s original projection, the school district is legally allowed to increase its millage rate higher than what was first proposed, said Richard Henderson, the district’s
business manager.

The Act 1 index allows for a 1.7 percent annual millage rate increase and the PSERS exception allows for an additional 1 percent increase, for a total annual increase of 2.7 percent, Henderson said.

Under the latest revisions to the proposed budget, the millage rate for the 2012-2013 school year would be 26.731, a 2.73 percent annual increase compared to the 2011-2012 school year, Henderson said. 

The owner of a $161,045 home, which is the average residential property assessment, would pay a total of $4,305 in property taxes in 2012-2013, which is $114 more than what the same homeowner paid in 2011-2012, according to millage rate statistics provided by Henderson. 

The district’s annual property tax increase was 6.32 percent in 2011-2012 and 5.94 percent in 2010-2011, according to millage rate statistics.

Although the PSERS exception allows the district to increase taxes, the district will still lose nearly a million dollars in what it pays for in the retirement fund next year (teachers also contribute to the fund) because PSERS is under-funded at the state level, Henderson said.

On the revenue side of the 2012-2013 proposed budget, the district will pick up a $978,000 PSERS subsidy from the state, but on the expenditure side, the district will pay $1,960,000 in retirement fund contributions to PSERS, Henderson explained.

Currently, the district gets back half of the increase in PSERS expenditures each year, Henderson said.

Meanwhile, the latest revisions to the budget also showed more than $600,000 in “favorable adjustments”—such savings from recent bond refinancing ($192,000 next year and a total of $656,000 over the next four years) and a reduction to the original estimate for medical premiums (reduced 2.9 percent from $740,000 to $588,000), Henderson said.

The revised budget presented on Thursday night projects total revenues of about $92.8 million, total expenditures of some $94 million, and an ending fund balance of $1.2 million, Henderson said.

In his first budget presentation in January, Henderson had projected total revenues of about $91.8 million, total expenditures of some $93.7 million and an ending fund balance of $548,530.

Haverford’s budget accounts for what the governor has proposed for the state budget for next year, Henderson said. 

If approved, the governor’s proposal would cut $100 million from state education, on top of $800 million in state cuts to schools last year, Haverford School Board Member Larry Feinberg said.

“You can call it what you want, but basically, the state is abdicating its responsibility to provide public education,” Feinberg said.

At its next meeting on March 29, the Haverford School Board plans to vote on a resolution which would urge the state General Assembly to take legislative action in the 2012-13 state budget to increase funding for K-12 education.

“Other countries are investing in education left and right ... China is pouring money into education and science and technology and we’re cutting everything,” said school board member Maxine Murdoch. “I don’t know where they think we’re going to be in 25 years.”

The school board is scheduled to adopt the final district budget on June 7.