Board hears reality check on new contract

AMITY >> Daniel Boone School Board member Richard Martino said at a recent meeting that district taxpayers are “condemned” to a maximum school property tax increase every year “for the foreseeable future.”

He said that other consequences of acceptance of the fouryear teacher contract fact-finder report are a $6 million deficit and possible bankruptcy by the district by 2020-21 school year.

The board accepted the factfinder report on Nov. 9, followed by the DBEA’s acceptance on Nov. 16, ending a two-year impasse over contract negotiations.

Despite no salary increases within the four-year contract, Martino told the board at its Nov. 21 voting meeting that the $6 million deficit would occur “even with said maximum tax increase.”

Fact-Finder William W. Lowe of Red Lion — appointed by the Pennsylvania Labor & Relations Board — recommended in his report wage freezes for the two years of the contract dispute.

In addition, there would be no horizontal or vertical movement

on the salary schedule for the first three years of the contract.

The 246 teachers would each receive a $500 bonus in year three.

Step and column movement would occur in the contract’s fourth year — the 2018-19 school year — without “additional money added to the schedule.”

Lowe said in his report that “Wages and Other Economic Benefits,” were a “most difficult matter.”

“The district is in an unenviable position of not having sufficient funding options to meet its increasing obligations. For all these reasons, I find the District is not able to meet the wage funding requirements to the degree desired by the Association.”

District employee wages currently comprise almost one-half of the district’s budget

The DBEA requested a 1-percent step movement increase retroactive to Sept. 1, 2015, and another 1-percent step movement increase in years two and three of the agreement.

He attributed the district’s current financial position to building a “stateof-the-art” middle school in 2005 — due to projected student enrollment increases by 2010.

The opposite occurred, he said, beginning in 2010, which left the district with “far too much capacity and too much expense to continue its prior funding levels.”

Lowe also cited increased public school funding to PSERS — the state’s pension fund — as well as increased healthcare and special education costs, mandated funding to charter schools, and three to four percent salary increases in the previous DBEA contract.

“All these factors conspired to limit the funding available within the District, and according to its estimates, its expenditures will exceed its available funds in just a couple of years.”

He said the Association argued that the district didn’t take advantage of its ability to raise taxes to “allowable levels to be able to support the funding needs of the District,” and “... that it was the District’s obligation to raise taxes to meet the increased funding burden, and it did not take advantage of that opportunity.”

The board approved in June the district’s 201617 budget that includes a 2.5-percent tax increase from 28.96 to 29.70 mills.

Property taxes have not increased since June 2010, when the board approved a .54 mill increase. That raised taxes from 28.42 to 28.9618 mills. Property owners currently pay $2,869 for every $100,000 of value.

Beginning in May 2011, student and parent groups pleaded annually at board meetings for increased property taxes.

They said increased taxes would compound annually and help prevent teacher furloughs and program elimination such as full day kindergarten, elementary band, and various high school band programs.

In May 2012, board members discussed the risk of bankruptcy in one or two years if the district didn’t increase taxes more than .3168 mills and generate more than $315,000 in revenue.

“Before the vote on the Fact-Finder Report (on Nov. 9), I stated that no one had yet told me how we were going to pay for it,” said Martino on Nov. 21, adding, “The silence of the response was deafening.”

He said the district’s business office presented the board with a five-year financial impact of the Fact-Finder Report, but that the board “apparently chose to ignore it.”

“As one member of the public astutely pointed out, we missed the opportunity to continue bargaining on salary, benefits, and work rules, but instead inexplicably gave the teachers basically the same contract they already had.”

Martino said district teachers are among the highest paid in Pennsylvania and property taxes are among the highest in Berks County.

In other business, the school board approved 5-1 a five-year LERTA tax abatement program with Amity Township.

Board member David Rathgeb abstained from the vote, stating that he owns property located within the LERTA zone.

Board members Connor Kurtz, Carol Beitz, and Scott Potts were absent from the meeting.

LERTA stands for Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance. A LERTA provides during the first year, 100 percent tax abatement on property improvements.

The percentage decreases by 10 percent per year for 10-year LERTAs, and by 20 percent for fiveyear LERTAs.

Berks County and Amity Township identified and approved in June, township properties that would qualify for the LERTA.

The properties are located in Amity Township’s highway commercial zone along Route 422, the shopping center district at Routes 662 and 422, and the planned business/ office/industrial area on north Limekiln Road.

Amity Township Manager Troy Bingaman said the properties were identified by the county on the Berks County 2030 Plan.

“The LERTA would encourage industry to come into the township,” said Vice Chairman and Supervisor Richard L. Gokey on June 1.