State Clears Way for Exceptions

The Express-Times reports that the Department of Education has cleared the way for Nazareth to go beyond the index that caps the district's taxable level prior to going to referendum (read the article here).

The tax index cap and referendum have turned out to be quite a joke. Unfortunately the joke is on the taxpayers. Schools now view the cap as the 'acceptable' tax increase.

According to Lesky and business manager Bernadine Rishcoff, the administration prefers to raise taxes to the index level, not beyond it.

Why not prefer to go under the index, or better yet have no increase or a deduction as the goal?

The state provides exceptions for a variety of items including debt. So when a district borrows beyond its ability to pay back without hiking taxes, the state comes in and raises the level they can tax prior to the taxpayer having a say.

Yesterday/last night, Brad posted his notes and indicated with the MS being built, Nazareth is looking at double digit taxes in the next couple years assuming they are accurate predictions (he also noted they underestimated the re-orientation costs of the new grade levels by 50%).

To get the most bang for their buck in coming years, the preliminary proposed budget, will tax up to the index level and result in a half-million budget surplus (see Brad's post: "Admin expects a 5.4% increase in real estate taxes this year and to actually be $553,649 below budget"). Why? So the following year they will earn more money on the same percentage tax hike (they will start from a higher base).

While folks in Harrisburg may point to this legislation and say they put the power in the hands of the taxpayer and made the schools responsible, it would seem they've done more bad than good.