School Board Approves 2012-13 Budget with Tax Rate Hike
The move raises property taxes by half a mill.
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After months of consideration, with virtually no debate or comment, the Southern Lehigh School Board voted 6-3 to approve a slightly modified version of the proposed 2012-13 budget, which will raise property taxes by half a mill.
A local service tax and real estate transfer taxes will also be implemented to support next school year's budget.
School directors Jeff Dimmig, James Lindsay and John Quigley voted against the budget measure, but they were overruled by the other six board members -- Corinne Gunkle, William Lycett, Bill Hayes, Dorothy Mohr, Elizabeth Stelts and board president Thomas McLoughlin.
A separate vote, which financially supports the new budget by raising property taxes by 0.5 mills, passed 5-4, with Lycett joining Dimmig, Lindsay and Quigley in opposing the move.
However, on the collection of a local service tax of $5 per person, the collection of Earned Income Tax (EIT) and the collection of real estate transfer fees. Lindsay abstained from voting, and the other eight members approved the measures.
Property taxes are expected to bring in about $34.8 million next year. An additional $3.5 million will be raised through the EIT, and real estate transfer taxes are estimated to bring $450,000 in revenue.
The half-mill increase is estimated to cost the average homeowner an additional $46 per year, according to district estimates.
Director of Business Services Jeremy Melber said the final budget was modified to allocate $100,000 for unemployment compensation, up from $55,000, due to a miscalculation. The difference is small compared with the overall numbers, he added.
The district is expected to spend nearly $54 million in 2012-13, down from approximately $56.74 in 2011-12.
(Note: This article was updated at 12:30 p.m. on June 5 to correct a minor error in the vote count regarding the collection of a local service tax of $5 per person, the collection of Earned Income Tax (EIT) and the collection of real estate transfer fees.)
Stew
7:15 am on Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Wait another miscalculation: "Director of Business Services Jeremy Melber said the final budget was modified to allocate $100,000 for unemployment compensation, up from $55,000, due to a miscalculation. The difference is small, compared to the overall numbers, he added." Let me get this straight this looks similar to another "Huge miscalculation" by another director in the past. It appears to me that perhaps we need to hire an outside firm that has a bond for their screw ups and not hire district employees to do the job. Is the current Director of Business a licensed CPA? May I have that $55,000 miscalculation...remember "The difference is small, compared to the overall numbers, he added." Anybody else not understand how this continues to happen?????
John Schubert
9:28 am on Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Leave it to Stew to pounce on the fact that they found an error AND FIXED IT. Also leave it to Stew to not understand the process.
Think of the budget as analogous to writing a book, and having to have a complete first draft in a very rushed timetable. The first draft of the book will have errors. The first draft will have placeholders, because you haven't finished your interviews. Then you have a month or two to go through it, finish the interviews, and fix the errors.
The budget is a massive document, and it takes hours just to page through it. Inevitably, it begins with "placeholder" numbers where true costs are not yet known.
You should be more concerned that four of the board members voted for a march to insolvency.
Liberalism is a mental disorder
12:59 pm on Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Who or what is this "Stew". A review of "its" posts shows a general lack of logic in any post.
Stew
5:05 pm on Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Stew is the voice of common sense and of the little people. The arrogance of such individuals to continue to ignore the problem of accounting at Central Office. Perhaps an outside CPA firm might be in order prior to the new fiscal year beginning. I applaud the new board members for voting as they did and hope they will continue to be the lighthouse in the mist of the storm. John and Incredibly Wise I am Stew...there are more like me...who are fearful of persecution.
Peter
6:53 pm on Tuesday, June 5, 2012
if i mis-calculate an estimate on a project by a factor of 2, i get in trouble, regardless of how long the spec document is.
careless fills
9:37 am on Wednesday, June 6, 2012
I'm the first to jump on overspending, but this issue is a tempest in a teapot. A smalll adjustment in one line item in the budget for a "project" is hardly anything to get your panties in a bunch over. After all, the budget is only an estimate of what will be spent, and not the real money that will be spent. Even if this "mistake" wasn't discovered now, it almost certainly would have been when the real bill was going to be paid and the "invoice" was examined. Good night.
Liberalism is a mental disorder
11:18 am on Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Ah bull. This is a $55 million dollar budget that was under development. They found a 0.08% error. You critics are all a bunch of losers who seek to elevate yourselves by taking shots at anybody in a school system who does not achieve to "your" high standards.
And Stew, you are so clueless it's just amazing. You think an external CPA never makes a 0,08% miscalculation? And the books are audited by an external accounting firms, and they NEVER find any issues with the books. DUH.
Voice Of Reason
5:06 pm on Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Once again stew....feeding off of erroneous reporting. If you would attend meetings like I do, and not just ridicule people, you would know that the business director did not say it was a mistake, he said it was an under estimation because the most recent bills went up, and felt the $55,000 was not enough to cover for next year. Get the facts straight and maybe you won't look so ridiculous all the time.
Christina Georgiou
6:43 am on Thursday, June 7, 2012
Just to clarify, the reporting was not erroneous. According to Merriam-Webster a "miscalculation" is "a wrong judgment". According to Oxford, "to estimate an amount, a figure, a measurement, etc. wrongly." And, according to the Free Dictionary, "To count or estimate incorrectly".
That said, the figure was corrected before the final vote. And while $45,000 is nothing to sneeze at, in the face of a $54 million budget, it's really not a lot.
Sree
6:41 am on Saturday, September 22, 2012
Ascertain that you meet the requirements for the state office you want to run for. Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor of Colorado must be at least 30 years old and must have lived in the state for at least two years. Candidates for the Colorado House and Senate must be a least 25 and must have lived in the state for one year. Candidates for all offices must be citizens of the United States. Thanks a lot.
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