SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. — A proposed Parkland School district budget likely to be introduced at its next meeting contains the district's highest tax increase in the past seven years.
A summary of the proposed budget for the 2023-24 school year was presented at Parkland School Board’s Personnel and Finance Committee meeting Monday.
- Parkland Schools' proposed budget for the 2023-24 school year would raise the district property tax rate 0.4 of a mill, or 2.5%
- That would be the district's largest rate increase in seven years
- The budget shows the money would be used mostly for salary and benefits, special education services and charter school tuition
The budget for next year has a 0.4 of a mill property tax rate increase that would take the millage rate from 15.90 mills to 16.30 mills.
That would be a 2.5% millage rate increase. The maximum allowable yearly increase allowed by the state is 4.1%.
If the budget would pass as proposed, the district still would have the lowest millage rate in the county. The second lowest is Southern Lehigh School District, which has a 17.26 millage rate.
The proposed increase would be Parkland's highest since the 2016-17 school year, when the board increased the millage rate 3.48%.
For the 2019-20 school year, the board increased the millage rate 1.88%. The board did not increase the millage rate for the next two years, then increased it 1.2% last year.
Budget specifics
The main increases in expenditures in the budget is $4 million more in salary costs, a $3.8 million increase in the cost of benefits, a $566,000 increase in the cost of special education services and a $554,000 increase in charter school tuition.
In addition to the tax increase, the proposed budget would use about $4.5 million of the district's fund balance, or the money it has in reserves, to cover the budget's deficit.
The proposed budget also transfers $5 million of the fund balance to the capital reserve fund.
“If we were to balance the entire budget by using the general fund over and over and over again, within five years, that would be down to nothing.”Parkland School Board Board Vice President Marisa Ziegler
Board Vice President Marisa Ziegler said the district should not use the fund balance to cover the entire deficit because the spending includes recurring costs.
“If we were to balance the entire budget by using the general fund over and over and over again, within five years, that would be down to nothing,” Ziegler said.
The average residential assessed value in the district is about $247,000, which would see an increase of $98.03 to their tax bill each year.
A property with an assessed value of $150,000 would see a $59.60 increase, and a property with an assessed value of $400,000 would see a $159 increase to their tax bill.
