Seneca Valley adopts budget for 2023-24 with tax increase
JACKSON TWP – The Seneca Valley School District has a budget in place for the 2023-24 school year, and those living in the district will have to pay a little extra for it.
At this month’s school board meeting Monday night, June 12, the district’s school board officially approved the final budget for the 2023-24 school year as presented, at an amount of just over $168 million.
Most notably, the budget includes a real estate tax rate increase of 1.95% over 2022-23, raising the rate from 130.45 mills to 133 mills. The increase will cost the owner of a median home in the district an additional $66 annually.
Total operating expenditures amount to just under $160.1 million, an increase of 3.48% over the previous budget. Estimated revenue sits at just under $158.2 million, an increase of 4.45% over a year ago despite an expected decrease in federal COVID-19 subsidies. $8 million will be transferred to the district’s capital reserve fund.
The board approved the budget by a 5-2 vote, with Jim Nickel and Mike Jacobs voting no. Tim Hester and Leslie Bredl were absent Monday.
“Our budget process for the past 10 years has been very deliberate, has been planned, and I’m in favor of it,” said Kathy Whittle, president of the school board. “We had a healthy discussion a month ago. It’s time to pass the budget at this point.”
According to communications director Linda Andreassi, the tax rate increase was unavoidable, due in large part to inflation increasing costs across the board. In addition, the school district is absorbing the impact of two large construction projects completed over the past year – the new Ehrman Crest Elementary/Middle School and the Academy of Choice’s Cyber Drop-in Center.
“The increase is necessary in this instance due to the impact of inflation across nearly all cost categories,” Andreassi said.
The proposed budget was introduced at the board’s last meeting, May 8, and approved by a 7-2 vote, with Nickel and Jacobs voting no. Board member Eric DiTullio said no changes were made in the month following the May approval.
"The hardest part is always, ‘what’s the state going to do?’“ DiTullio said. ”We don’t know what the state budget is, and the state hasn’t passed a budget yet, so we’re always making assumptions based on what they’ve done in years past. We’re pretty confident we’re in a safe position when it comes to what the state will fund us.“
The budget was the last to be overseen by the district’s business manager, Lynn Burtner, who will step down in December after 14 years with the district. She will stay long enough to train her successor when one is found.
"I’ve been doing this for a lot of years, and I love doing it,“ Burtner said. ”It is a puzzle to make all the pieces fit and to make sure that it best represents the goals of the district.“
