Budget brings tax hike of 3.5%

School board unable to trim $62.7 million spending plan

POTTSTOWN » The three-yearlong, no-tax-hike streak for the Pottstown School District has just about run its course.

At the school board’s facilities/finance committee meeting Thursday night, the message was pretty simple: Nothing has changed.

Business Manager Maureen Jampo told the committee members that revenues from the previous year remained flat — due largely to challenges to property assessments which reduced revenues — while expenses went up due primarily to the increase in teacher salaries and increased pension costs.

Use of reserve funds set aside for the pension hikes covered about $432,000 of the $1.4 million budget gap for the coming year.

The other $1 million will be covered by the 3.5 percent tax hike called for in the budget.

Jampo noted that had Pottstown Hospital not been pulled from the tax rolls as a result of being sold to Tower Health, the school budget would be balanced for the coming year except for $36,000.

Instead, the need to make up the $1 million shortfall hike will add $98.56 to the annual tax bill for a home assessed at $78,890 — the borough median.

School Board member John Ar-

mato pointed out that during the previous three years, when no tax hike was imposed, property owners experienced more than $1,600 in savings from the homestead tax break, “much less than the increase they will see this year.”

At his prompting, Jampo also agreed with his assessment that the only way to achieve a fourth year with no tax hike would be to “cut a whole lot of programs that people do not want to see cut.”

As evidence that the district is doing everything it can to cut costs, Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez said the decision on outsourcing transportation department will become final on June 18, producing an expected savings

of $78,000.

But, as Rodriguez said Jampo outlined to him, “one student who needs special transportation will eat that in a few months.”

Aramto confirmed that the district has one bus run, for two students, that costs the district $98,000 a year.

Despite the budget constrictions, Rodriguez confirmed that the dean of students, security guard and mental health professional provided in partnership with Creative Health would remain at Pottstown Middle School where bullying and violence problems have recently made headlines.

The school board will meet next week to finalize the budget picture, but given that next week does not leave enough time to publish any changes to the budget, as required by law, it seems likely the tax hike will likely remain at 3.5 percent.