Dallas residents face higher taxes

EILEEN GODIN Times Leader Correspondent

DALLAS TWP. – Dallas School District taxpayers face a tax increase after the school board passed a $31,525,486 budget for the 2010-2011 school year on Thursday night.

The new budget contains an 11.0118 millage rate, a 3.4 percent increase from last year’s 10.6498 mills. A mill is a $1 in tax for every $1,000 of assessed property value.

The budget also has a $10 per capita tax and an earned income tax of 1 percent to be shared 50-50 with municipal governments. An emergency municipal services tax of $52 -- $5 for the district and $47 for municipal governments who enacted such taxes – also will be applied.

Board member Maureen Matiska voted against the new budget, which is available in the district administration office for public viewing.

Resident Dick Morgan pointedly asked the board members how many school employees lived within the district and requested a list of total wages and benefits paid for the past school year. He said some families have lost one income.

“There are working families living on a fixed income as well as senior citizens,” he said. “Tax wells are getting dried up.”

He told board members the tax burden on residents needs to be considered during the upcoming teacher contract negotiations.

“You need to find new ways for fresh money,” he said.

Board member Bruce Goeringer said the board is aware of the problem and some tough cuts will need to be made in the coming years.

Board member Karen Kyle said there are two schools of thought. The first would be that schools do not fill positions when someone retirees or positions are cut. The second would be to freeze salaries.

After the meeting, Morgan said he would like to see school employees live within the district they serve. He said this would make a cycle of school employees receiving a pay raise, then paying in on the district’s tax.

“They said in the meeting 66 percent of the budget is salaries and benefits,” he said.

In other business, wanting to take advantage of an attractive rate environment, the board approved three bonds with PNC Capital Markets LLC, in the aggregate principal amounts of $25,870,000 for Series A bonds, $18,190,000 for Series B bonds, and $6,385,000 for Series C bonds.

The purpose of the Series A and B bonds is to “pay a portion of the cost of the completion of designing, acquiring, constructing, installing, furnishing and equipping the new high school facility and to pay the costs and expenses of issuance of the bonds.”