Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Officials must work to cut $3.3 million to balance the budget.
Plum School District officials have cut about $1 million from the 2013-14 school year budget, but they still have quite a ways to go. Currently, the budget reflects a $3.3 million deficit. Last month, the budget had a $4.3 million deficit. The school board will hold a special finance committee meeting to serve as a budget work session on Tuesday, April 2, in the Oblock Jr. High School auditorium. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Projected expenses are $58.6 million with revenue at $55.4 million. The district's millage rate most likely will be lowered due to the county-wide reassessment, according to district business manager Eugene Marraccini. He said the district's overall assessment jumped from $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion. Under state …
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Officials have until the end of June to balance the budget.
Plum school officials are faced with a bigger budget deficit than they were at the same time last year. During a Plum School Board finance committee meeting on Tuesday, school district manager Eugene Marraccini presented a $59.8 million preliminary draft budget for the 2013-14 school year. That budget currently has a $4.28 million deficit and does not include a tax increase. A copy of the preliminary budget presented at the meeting has been uploaded to the media section of this article. At this time last year, officials were dealing with a $3 million deficit. The district's millage rate most likely will be lowered due to the county-wide reassessment. Marraccini said the district's overall assessment jumped from $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion…
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
A preliminary budget must be approved by February for the district to apply for tax exceptions.
Riverview officials are working on preparing a preliminary budget that they hope to approve next month. Though a final budget is not due until the end of June, districts that are considering increasing taxes above the allowed state maximum under Pennsylvania's Act 1 of 2006 must send a preliminary budget to the state department of education. To raise taxes above the Act 1 index, which is 0.21 percent for the 2013-14 fiscal year, districts must apply for allowed exceptions—for special education costs, pensions, etc. Riverview School District followed the same procedure last year. District Business Manager Frank Thompson also said officials would have to lower the millage rate due to the county-wide reassessments. Under state law, taxing …
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
A proposed budget includes a tax increase and an additional teaching position.
After a quiet public hearing Monday evening, little has changed in the Riverview School Board’s preliminary budget, which includes a tax increase on par with what home owners have seen in the past few years. The tax increase stood at 0.6336 mills Monday (about $63 for someone owning a $100,000 home), slightly below the 0.6386 figure in the preliminary budget passed on May 21. Since then, the board has also added a kindergarten teacher position and funding for a special education student. Those additions total between $80,000 and $90,000, according to Business Manager Frank Thompson. But further trimming—in areas such as sewage, natural gas and auditorium spending—got rid of $106,000 in expenditures. “These aren’t foolish line-item …
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Riverview School Board approved an $18.03 million preliminary budget Monday.
Residents of Oakmont and Verona might be paying more in school taxes next year. The Riverview School Board approved an $18.03 million preliminary budget on Monday. It includes a 0.6386-mill increase, upping the millage to 25.425 mills. With the proposed tax increase, the owner of a $100,000 home would pay about $63 more next school year. Though a preliminary budget has been approved, board members and administrators say they still have a lot of work to do. "We still have a lot of areas to discuss," said board member John Hackworth. "The budget is certainly preliminary." Officials have been tossing around several personnel changes and increases to the technology budget. For more information about those items, read this Plum-Oakmont Patch …
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
As officials look for ways to offset planned expenses for the 2012-13 school year, they are also hopeful that the state budget, when finalized, will be more favorable to education than currently expected.
The Riverview School Board continued to hash out ways to balance next school year's $17.9 million budget on Monday as the vote on a preliminary budget quickly approaches. "Not a whole lot has changed [since the last meeting]," said district business manager Frank Thompson. "We are still looking at a 0.6386-mill real estate tax increase." The current millage rate is 24.7864 mills. With the proposed tax increase, the owner of a $100,000 home would pay about $63 more next school year. Over the past five years, explained Thompson, real estate tax increases have been at 0.5 to 0.6 mills. Some years it went down, although such drops were primarily due to a large number of teacher retirements in the same year. Currently, the board is hopeful that…
Friday, January 27, 2012
The board discussed the first draft of the 2012-13 school year budget earlier this week.
A very rough draft of the Plum Borough School District's 2012-13 budget includes a deficit, and officials are working to fix it in the next couple of months. At a school board finance committee meeting on Tuesday, Gene Marraccini, the district's Director of Business Affairs, presented the $55.7 million budget. Projected revenues are at $52.8 million, and expenditures are set at $55.7 million, leaving the district with a $2.8 million deficit. The budget does not include a tax increase. The district's real estate tax rate is 22.2 mills, which generates $1 for every $1,000 of tax assessment. Due to the state's Act 1 of 2006—or the Taxpayer Relief Act—the district can't raise taxes by more than 1.7 percent, meaning the millage only could be …
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Verona Council has approved a very rough draft of the preliminary budget, but officials say they are going to work hard to get rid of a $70,000 deficit.
Despite a large deficit in Verona Borough's preliminary budget, officials aren't anticipating a real estate tax increase. At Tuesday's borough council meeting, officials voted 5-1 to pass a preliminary $1.1 million 2012 budget that includes a deficit of about $70,000. Councilwoman Peggy Suchevich dissented, saying she wouldn't pass a budget showing the borough in the hole. Councilman Stan Adamski was absent. Officials now have to work out the kinks in the budget before approving a final version at the Dec. 27 council meeting. The current version will be advertised and displayed at the borough building for 10 days beginning on Friday. Despite the large deficit, Councilwoman Sandra Drabicki-Bell said officials would not raise real estate …
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Riverview School District officials have passed what they call a very preliminary 2012-13 budget due to several uncertainties.
Residents in the Riverview School District might experience a real estate tax increase next fiscal year, but it's too early to tell, according to school officials. On Monday, the school board approved a $17.8 million preliminary budget. The budget includes a 0.58-mill tax increase. The current millage rate is 24.7864 mills. With the proposed tax increase, the owner of a $100,000 home would pay about $58 more next school year. Superintendent Chuck Erdeljac said the district is in a bind because officials have yet to receive county-mandated property reassessment figures. Those figures definitely will affect next school year's budget in terms of how much revenue the district will receive from real estate taxes. Last month, district business …
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Borough council discussed the preliminary budget at its Nov. 7 workshop meeting.
It looks like Plum Borough residents might not experience a real estate tax hike in 2012. On Monday, borough finance director Michael Whitico presented the $10.7 million preliminary balanced budget to council. With budgeted expenses of $10,770,448 and budgeted revenues of $10,778,561, the budget projects a preliminary general fund surplus of $8,113. The budget projects a decrease in expenses, but also a drop in revenues. Compared to 2011's adopted budget, the preliminary 2012 budget anticipates a $314,274 decrease in expenditures from 2011 and a $321,350 decrease in budgeted revenues. As the budget stands now, Whitico told council, there is no increase in taxes or fees. Plum's millage rate is currently 4.3, it's earned income tax is 1 …
MD
8:12 am on Tuesday, May 22, 2012
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