KNOX,Pa. (EYT) — As the Keystone School Board presented its yearly budget during its monthly meeting, talk arose of possibly raising school taxes in the coming years.
The discussion comes considering multiple projects that will need to be funded and completed over the next 10 to 15 years. The board presented its tentative approval of a $17.5M budget for the upcoming 2022-23 school year.
“We did have a discussion tonight at buildings and ground about weighing how we’re going to fund our capital projects that need to be done over the next five to ten years,” school board secretary Vernon Lauffer said. “New boilers at the high school, and HVAC and windows in (the elementary school), which is going to be a major expense.”
The tax increase is estimated to be around one to one and a half mill per year for possibly the next three years, according to Lauffer.
“As much as I’m a taxpayer and have to pay it myself, I see that it’s going to be necessary to get our buildings up to where we want them to be,” he noted.
Although no one in the room was in favor of a tax increase, the cost to run the district continues to rise; therefore, board members accepted the fact that an increase may be needed.
“With (the tax rate) barely increasing over the last 10 to 15 years, we’ve hit the point where we’ve taken care of the buildings the best we can,” board member Dustin Swartfager said. “The projects — and the cost of projects — to keep the buildings functioning nice and the way that they need to be, those projects are numbers that we haven’t typically known.”
“(The discussion) didn’t just start yesterday,” board member Kenneth Swartfager chimed in, who noted that the board has done this in the past for the same reasons. “The plan has to start now. It can’t wait for another ten years until we get it. It’s got to start now just like we did before. That way, we got a plan and every year we put that little bit away.”
“Nobody here likes the idea of (raising taxes), but that’s the reality of it,” he added. “And if we wouldn’t have done it then, we wouldn’t have done the things now. We need to do a little, or we’ll be so far behind in ten years that the next group of people that are on the board at that time, will not stand a chance. I’m not opposed to it — I don’t like it — but, I’m not opposed to it.”
The discussion was tabled, and no action was officially taken.
Lauffer presented a draft balanced budget holding the tax rate at 51.587 mills during last month’s meeting. He noted that some school costs have increased since then, and might continue to increase. The draft budget will most likely change multiple times until a final budget is presented.
