In the proposed budget, taxes increased by 3.4 percent in the school district of Treadmill-Easttown – Daily Local

TREDIFRIN – This week the principals of the Tredyffrin / Easttown school board approved a proposed budget for 2022-23, in which the average property owner in the county will pay $ 222 more in taxes next year.

By 8 votes to 1, school principals agreed to a plan that would generate $ 4.3 million under an index of 3.4 percent of Act 1. Index Act 1 is used to determine the maximum tax increase for each tax levied by the school district without approval. voters.

The budget, if approved, will help close the projected operating deficit of almost 6 million% from now until the final approval of the budget in June this year.

The proposed budget includes $ 160.7 million in projected revenues, $ 4.65 million in contributions to funds, and $ 165,443,058 in allowable expenditures. The final property tax rate will not be set until the June board meeting.

Some of the items included in the development of the operational budget were additional ESSER grant funds (Primary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund), increase in the appraised value of property, reduction of budgets of departments and schools, contribution to the capital fund, additional professional and support staff. as well as increased hourly rates for support staff.

Arthur McDonnell, business manager, presented the council with three options for eliminating the deficit – a 3.4 percent tax increase, the maximum that the council can collect without a referendum, a 2.5 percent tax increase or no tax increase.
“Staffing a huge portion of what we do here and a significant portion of our budget,” McDonnell said.

The indicative budget is based on entrants ’forecasts, and the board will not have updated enrollment figures until next month.

If the council chose the second option, advocated by school principal Michelle Burger, it would mean a 2.5 percent tax increase, which would bring in $ 3.1 million in revenue, closing the deficit to just $ 2.8 million.

“The townships (Tridifrin and Easttown) are still developing and we will make a commercial profit from the developments,” Burger said. “There are some very large housing developments (under construction) that will bring in tax revenue.”

McDonnell told the board that over the past five years the county tax rate has averaged 2.93 percent, one of the lowest in Chester County.

The proposed budget would cost property owners $ 222 more per year, based on an average house estimate of $ 260,000 with an average tax of $ 6,539 per year. Without tax increases, the council will consider an operating deficit of about $ 4.27 million.

“We will try to keep the numbers as low as possible,” said Roberta Khotinski, chairman of the board. She noted that the final budget largely depends on upgrading the recruitment and possible renovation of the area’s sports grounds worth $ 24 million.

Negotiations on the budget will continue on May 9. The final rate of the budget and real estate tax will not be set until the next meeting of the public council on June 13.

The Tridifrine School District is ranked second in 495 Pennsylvania school districts for academic achievement. It enrolls more than 7,100 K-12 students with a student-to-teacher ratio of 15 to 1.