Riverview May Raise Taxes

’s taxes may increase half a mill to three-quarters of a mill next year, but that increase is far from being set in stone.

The school board will consider a preliminary proposed budget that anticipates the increase at its Nov. 21 voting meeting, according to superintendent Charles Erdeljac.

There are several factors that might change the budget—and the millage rate—in the future, such as this year’s county tax reassessments.

The district’s 2011-12 property tax rate is 24.7860 mills.

The assessments are expected come out in December.

“Riverview will be like every other district in that we still do not know what the Allegheny County property assessment will be,” Erdeljac said.

The real estate assessments could increase.

“That will probably mean we reduce our millage,” said Frank Thompson, the school district’s business manager. “(The proposed preliminary budget) gives us the time to let all the revenues and expenditures fall into place.”

The assessment “changes the rules” for school districts, Thompson said, because when there is a reassessment in the county, the school district must abide by the index set by its Act 1 calculation the previous year.

The state’s Act 1 of 2006, or the Taxpayer Relief Act, sets a limit on the property tax rates each year.

“The index for last year is lower than this current year, so school districts are scrambling,” he said.

Another factor that will impact the final budget next spring, Erdeljac said, is the fact that districts don’t know yet how the state department of education and special education budgets might impact them.

“What we’re trying to do is keep our options open,” Thompson said.

The school board, he said, plans to approve the proposed preliminary budget and later apply for exceptions.

The November move will put Riverview ahead of a deadline that under Act 1 of 2006 requires districts to make proposed preliminary budgets available for budget inspection by January 5.

“Our board is trying to say ‘we’re going to meet this deadline’,” Thompson said. “It allows us to go to the normal budget timeline of June 2012.”

The school district’s budget, Thompson said, is available to the public at all times.

For more information on Pennsylvania’s Act 1 of 2006, the Taxpayer Relief Act, check out:

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=510332&mode=2

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/property_tax_relief/7452

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/referendum_exceptions/7456