Mar 21, 2026 By Mike Jones 4 min read

Carmichaels Area school officials are pushing back on a misleading campaign attack mailer sent out by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania incorrectly claiming the district imposed a new tax in 2024 and then “raised our taxes through the roof” the following year.

A mailer attacking Republican state Senate candidate Al Buchtan claims that he “voted to start a new tax” as a member of the Carmichaels Area School Board in June 2024 and then “raised the tax 100% the next year!”

The other side of the mailer shows a red arrow with the word TAXES written on it blowing through a home’s roof, implying that property taxes have increased in the district.

Another GOP mailer also claims Buchtan and the school board “raised our taxes … twice! Two years in a row.”

However, the school board did not impose any new taxes in 2024 and has not raised the property tax millage rate since 2019, according to meeting minutes. A $5 occupational privilege tax the state Republican Party apparently is citing had been in effect since at least 2013, according to board minutes, and likely longer than that.

“That is false,” Carmichaels Superintendent Amy Todd said Friday. “We did not impose a new tax.”

The state Republican Party’s mailer that claims the “new tax” doubled in June 2025 appears to cite a motion that the district’s occupational privilege tax increased from $5 to $10 that year. But Todd said that change cited in the motion was an error because the overall $10 occupational privilege tax is split evenly between the school district and Carmichaels Borough.

“Our collection did not change,” Todd said of the $5 the district receives, while adding the board plans to vote next month to retroactively “correct” that motion from June 2025. Every June, the board sets tax rates, voting on occupational privilege, earned income, and real estate transfer taxes and millage while also adopting the annual budget.

The mailers attacking Buchtan in the hotly contested Republican primary – in which he is challenging state Sen. Camera Bartolotta – have generated outcries from Carmichaels Area taxpayers who have contacted school board members and district officials with their concerns. The situation became so contentious that the school board addressed the issue during its Thursday night meeting and planned to issue a formal statement on the district’s website and social media pages pushing back on the mailers and explaining the situation.

“This isn’t an endorsement for someone or against someone. We just want our taxpayers to know we haven’t imposed new taxes,” board President John Menhart said in a phone interview Friday. “For that to be out there, some of our board members are getting phone calls. We just want the truth to be known.”

Reached by email Friday morning, a Republican Party of Pennsylvania spokesman reiterated the political organization’s assertions listed in the mailers.

“Everything in the mailer that was sent out is correct according to the meeting minutes,” spokesman James Markley said.

Todd and Menhart said the district does not plan to take legal action against the state GOP for its mailers, but school officials plan to put out information correcting the record so taxpayers are aware of the situation.

“We’re most concerned about the taxpayers in our district getting the right information,” Menhart said.

“We’ll communicate to our taxpayers and put (information) on our website and do a public outreach to make sure the taxpayers and our board have all the information they need so they can answer questions,” Todd added.

Buchtan was a member of the Carmichaels Area School Board from December 2023 until he resigned from his seat last September before moving to a rental home in Canonsburg. Three registered Republicans living in the 46th state Senate District, which includes Washington and Greene counties and the southern sliver of Beaver County, are challenging Buchtan’s nominating petitions because he lists home addresses in both Cumberland Township and Canonsburg, although he is registered to vote in the latter location.

The primary on May 19 is the first time Bartolotta, R-Carroll, has faced a Republican challenger since she won election office in 2014.