Palmerton splits on proposed tax hike

If at first you don’t agree, try and try and try again.

On its fourth vote last week, Palmerton Area School District’s board of directors settled on a 0.75 mill property tax increase for its proposed 2019-20 budget.

The vote was approved by a 5-4 motion after previous attempts to increase taxes by 1 mill and 1.76 mills, and an effort to hold the line on taxes, failed.

Josh Smale, Tammy Recker, Earl Paules, Josann Harry and Kate Baumgardt voted for the 0.75 mill increase, while Barry Scherer, Kathy Fallow, Charles Gildner and Sherry Haas opposed it.

“Salaries go up, the cost of gas and transportation goes up and we’re still here making the same amount of money,” Paules said in his support of a tax increase. “We have contract negotiations coming up. I’m always in favor of planning for the future, not saying oh crap here we are, now what.”

Earlier this month, the board directed business manager Ryan Kish to add two police officers and two elementary math specialists to the budget. All four positions, including benefits for the specialists and supplies for the officers, totaled up to just under $400,000, leaving the district around $34 million in expenses for 2019-20. Factoring in the proposed tax increase, the district would be looking at a deficit of $2.17 million for the year, bringing its projected fund balance under $4 million after the 2019-20 session.

Gildner opposed any tax increase, saying he doesn’t see how the district can take money from taxpayers when it doesn’t need to.

“It just seems like we’re doing it because we can,” he said. “I’m only in favor of raising taxes when we absolutely need to, but we have the fund balance right now to cover this.”

Fallow said while she’s on a fixed income and doesn’t like to see tax increases, it’s sometimes necessary in the operation of a district.

“We have to be a steward for the taxpayer and the student, and that’s a very difficult thing to do,” she said. “Several years ago, we lost our band. This community was devastated and said please don’t ever take away our band again, but also please don’t take money out of our pocket. We are not magicians. I’m looking at the bills coming in right now and the money has to come from somewhere.”

While at the polls last Tuesday, school board candidate Doris Zellers said the number one concern she heard from voters is the amount of spending the district is doing. She said the board has gotten into a habit of spending because it wants to and not because it needs to.

“I’m hearing all of this talk about adding police officers and I believe we need to keep our students safe, but we still don’t have a secure entrance at S.S. Palmer and we have a metal detector at the high school that isn’t being used,” Zellers said. “It annoys me that you’re asking us to foot a $200,000 bill for two officers, when our buildings aren’t even secure yet.”

Another school board candidate, Jeff Henry, said he views the district’s proposal to add officers as reactionary instead of being proactive.

Recker, who has been arguably the most vocal supporter of adding police officers, said the discussion has been going on among the board for a number of years. While the secure entrance at S.S. Palmer, for example, is in the works, she doesn’t want to wait for that project to be complete to add another safety measure for students and staff.

“I agree we need to finish what we start, but there are students coming through those doors every day right now and it’s our responsibility to help keep them safe,” Recker said. “I don’t want to wait until another project is done or until it becomes a priority to add officers. There are grants available for officers and yes, some of them are only for a year, but they are out there. I don’t want to wait to take more measures to keep kids safe.”

The district has also budgeted for a high school special education teacher, at $74,590 with salary and benefits.

Students attending outside cyber or charter schools, as well as those attending schools such as Behavioral Health Associates, have resulted in an increase of around $400,000 to the district, Kish said at a finance committee meeting in May.