SCASD moves one step closer to approving 2025-26 budget, includes tax increase
The district's board voted to approve the 2025-26 Proposed Final Budget, which includes a tax increase. This would make the real estate tax rate 52.9597 mills according to a press release sent out by the district. The 4% increase is equal to the district's Act 1 Index, meaning it is the maximum rate it could raise taxes by this year.
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According to Randy Brown, the finance and operations officer for SCASD, the rise in cost for personnel contracts, utility bills and security services are all contributors to the suggestion of a tax increase. This comes after the district already raised taxes last year, a move which he says did not do enough to offset the growing costs, due to 'the inflationary pressures, as well as lack of increase in real estate revenue.'
The board also discussed the uncertainty of the national economy and how that would impact the budget.
'We have increased some budget areas to, hopefully, offset some increased expenses from the uncertainty in the markets,' Brown said. 'The other thing that we will do is we will try to anticipate areas where goods are going to have faster increases in costs. And so we will buy ahead as much as we can.'
According to the press release, the proposed final budget includes $207,523,588 in revenue – 79% of which will come from property taxes. Before anything is set in stone, there may be additional items presented to the board that could help the district bring the increase down.
'There still could be some impacts that, some items that are impacted that the final budget proposal – it may not be the exact document that they see on June 2 that they were presented with last night,' Brown said.
However, the possibility of a decrease happening for this budget is unlikely.
'This year, because of the economic uncertainty, because of the $20 million building project that we have at Mount Nittany Elementary School going on right now, and the upcoming Park Forest Middle School project, as well as the district-wide facility master plan planning that we are working on, I would not expect that tax rate to decrease too much,' Brown said.
Now that the district's board has approved the proposed final budget, they are required to give the community at least a 15-day notice that the final budget will be approved on June 2. Between now and then, the board will host a public hearing for people to come and learn more about the budget and weigh in.
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