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Burgettstown Area School Board approves property tax increase

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BURGETTSTOWN – Burgettstown Area School Board approved a .5-mill increase in property taxes along with the $18.9 million budget for the next school year.

“Don’t think that this is being entered into lightly,” board President Chris Kramer said at Monday’s meeting. “I think we’re all pretty well informed about what’s going on.”

Among the major drivers of expenses are contractual increases in teacher and support staff salaries, which will rise more than $360,000, and health insurance, projected to rise more than $472,000. Like its counterparts all over the state, the district faces an increase in mandatory contributions into the Public School Employees’ Retirement System from 30.03 percent this year to 32.57 percent next year. For Burgettstown, that means an additional $334,976 will go toward shoring up the struggling pension fund next year.

“The larger increases, by far, were the health care, PSERS, and staff salaries,” said Superintendent James Walsh.

Walsh said the district teachers’ contract bars administrators from making furloughs.

The overall budget decreased by about $662,000 because officials decided to defer part of a bond payment to balance revenue with expenses.

The spending plan includes restructuring roughly $1.9 million of a payment due in February. Instead, Joseph Muscatello of bond underwriter Boenning & Scattergood said the district will repay that money – about $200,000 a year with interest – over the next 10 years or so.

This year’s budget season is the first during which Washington County public school districts will set millage rates based on new values taking effect under the countywide reassessment.

The .5-mill increase will add $50 to the tax bill for every $100,000 of a property’s assessed value and bring the millage rate to 11.368. The tax hike will generate an estimated $317,000.

The school board also approved borrowing $1 million at 2.1 percent interest from PNC Bank to cover expenses until revenue from tax bills comes in. The deadline to repay the loan is Dec. 31.

“Districts that don’t do this – it’s because they have a fund balance large enough to cover the deficit until the tax money for next year comes in, and that’s not our case,” Walsh said.

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