Area School Budget Roundup

The BCCT this morning compares the area school budgets and finds that Morrisville is the lone exception in producing lower taxes. The budget reporting is again not mentioning the "d" word: "defeasement." The savings in Morrisville comes at the cost of not investing in the future. Don't be fooled that this board is a tax cutting machine and that this will be a luxury-pared budget. The budget was bare bones before, and now even the skeleton is feeling the pain.

Some taxpayers smile; others frown

By THERESA HEGEL
The Intelligencer

Many homeowners in Bucks and Montgomery counties will see dips in next year's property bill — thanks to money skimmed from state gambling slots — with residents in several districts emerging as the clear winners.

Expected gaming credits will save eligible property owners in Lower Bucks anywhere from $166 in Centennial to just more than $290 in Bristol Township, according to state estimates.

In most cases, the gaming funds will help offset tax increases and allow qualified property owners to realize at least some savings on their tax bills.

But in Morrisville, where the school board is looking at ways to cut costs in the cash-strapped district, the $218 gaming credit will be assessed to eligible tax bills in addition to an average $321 reduction in taxes.

Morrisville's tax reduction is the exception in the area, with most other districts experiencing some sort of tax increase. However, residents with homestead exclusions will reap the benefits of state casino revenue. Such homeowners — and there are about 350,000 of them in Bucks and Montgomery counties — could see savings ranging from $25 to almost $200. For the rest, the annual tax bill will increase.



Two area school districts— New Hope-Solebury and Upper Moreland — budgeted higher than the property tax relief they were allotted. New Hope-Solebury residents essentially will break even, with only a $4 difference between the district's average tax hike and the $266 to be distributed to each homeowner with an exemption.

“It's a wash,” board President William Behre said at an April meeting. “That's fine with me.”

The majority of Upper Moreland's increase is slated to pay off a $34.5 million high school renovation project. Excluding that keeps the district's tax increase solidly under the 4.4 percent cap mandated by the state's Act 1.

The law is an attempt to keep school spending closer in line with taxpayers' wages. Increases higher than 4.4 percent must be approved by district voters, though districts can apply for larger rate caps to offset debt payments, as Upper Moreland did.

Centennial, New Hope-Solebury and Palisades also applied for exceptions, allowing them to raise taxes beyond 4.4 percent. Though North Penn qualified for an exception as well, the district did not push taxes past the state cap.

Because property values and incomes are lower in Quakertown, the district would have been permitted to raise taxes up to 5.1 percent without having to apply to the state. Instead, the school board approved a budget raising taxes by 4.5 percent, just a sliver above the general cap.

In addition to the usual suspects of salary and benefits, many districts credited rapidly increasing fuel and heating oil costs for inflating their budgets.

Palisades, for example, had to tack about $350,000 onto its final budget once heating bids and fuel estimates were taken into account. The lowest bid the district received for heating was more than twice its current rate.

Education reporters Joan Hellyer, Rachel Canelli and Manasee Wagh contributed to this article.

Theresa Hegel can be reached at 215-538-6381 or thegel@phillyBurbs.com