No tax increase proposed for 4th consecutive year
The Greater Nanticoke Area school board passed its proposed $49.6 million balanced budget Thursday with no tax increase for the fourth consecutive year.
Sydney Allabaugh | Times Leader
Greater Nanticoke Area Board President Tony Prushinski and Superintendent Ronald Grevera read agenda items at Thursday’s board meeting.
Sydney Allabaugh | Times Leader
The Greater Nanticoke Area school board passed its proposed $49.6 million balanced budget Thursday with no tax increase for the fourth consecutive year.
The district’s real estate tax rate will remain at 12.8083 mills, or about $12.81 in tax on every $1,000 of assessed property value. The board also maintained its 0.5% earned income tax, 0.5% real estate transfers tax, $5 per-capita tax, and $5 local service tax.
Board President Tony Prushinski emphasized that maintaining the real estate tax rate for four consecutive years was made possible in part by state support.
“Elections have consequences,” he said. “Make sure the people that we’re voting for in Harrisburg are voting for us — and Washington D.C. too.”
Superintendent Ronald Grevera said adequacy funding, which is state funding to support underfunded districts, has been critical.
“In the last 12 years that I’ve been superintendent, the district has always been underfunded,” Grevera said. “It has never been a spending issue with the district.”
“It’s critical that over the next several years, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania continues to fund the adequacy for the districts that have been so severely underfunded,” he said. “We would not be able to do the things that we’re doing without that money.”
The district anticipates receiving roughly $8 million through the state’s Ready to Learn Block Grant program. The funding includes about $2.5 million in adequacy funding, with the remainder coming through foundation funding that has compounded over the past three years, said Joe Caputo, the district’s business manager contracted through School Business Consultants.
Grevera noted existing funding challenges surrounding special education can create limitations.
“Special education has truly become an unfunded mandate in Pennsylvania, and it’s severly underfunded,” he said. “We have a lot of students that have a lot of special needs that are coming to not just our district, but throughout the county.”
About 10 years ago, the district paid about $4.1 million in special education expenses and received a $1.36 million state subsidy, according to Caputo’s report. Next school year, the district expects to pay about $8.5 million and receive a $2.37 million state subsidy.
“It’s imperative the legislature take a really good, hard look at special education, special education services,” Grevera said.
The district has also seen a steep rise in charter and out-of-district tuition expenses since the start of COVID-19. Charter tuition costs are projected at $3.45 million, up from $944,551 pre-COVID. Out-of-district tuition costs are projected at $4.37 million, up from $1.46 million pre-COVID.
Most of the district’s budget will go toward salaries and benefits, which have increased by a total $1.65 million and $1.23 million, respectively, following a new teachers’ contract approved this year.
Greater Nanticoke Area school board is scheduled to meet again on June 18. The deadline for final budget adoption is June 30.
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