SoLeHi Approves $53 million Budget and Raises Taxes by $23

The unanimously approved the district’s $53,559,040 budget for 2011-2012 Monday night.

The board, in a 7-2 vote, also approved a .25-mill increase in property taxes. According to the district’s business director, James Snell, a .25 millage increase amounts to about $23 for the average homeowner.

Like most area school districts, SoLeHi spends more on education each year than it earns. This new budget, for example, shows a $2.8 million shortfall by the end of 2012.

This, and the fact that Gov. Tom Corbett has to public schools, has sent districts across the state scrambling to reduce expenses.

Unlike most districts, however, Southern Lehigh is rich. It has a $16 million surplus that it uses to offset that yearly shortfall. But that $16 million won’t last very long with deficit spending, so the district took some , and at its May 23 meeting, the board proposed the .25-mill tax increase.

However, after some intense numbers crunching, the district discovered it was in better shape this year – in the amount of $1,008,390 – than it calculated just last month. Snell’s calculations also showed that 2012 might end better than expected by about $1.7 million.

Salary freezes and staffing reductions through attrition accounted for part of this difference.

These new numbers had members Jeffrey Dimmig and John Quigley convinced that a tax increase was not needed for 2011-2012, and they voted against it.

“We have $1.7 million more now than we had a month ago when we voted to raise taxes by .25 mills,” Quigley said. “That ¼ mill won’t make a difference in our long-range planning.”

But the majority of the board thought it was prudent to raise taxes now to offset future deficits.

“No one wants to eliminate art and music teachers here the way Allentown [School District] just did,” said Corinne Gunkle. “I think the .25 increase this year may prevent a .5 increase next year.”

According to the calculations shown at Monday’s meeting, the district is anticipating spending about $10 million of its surplus to offset costs through 2015. But those numbers also include possible tax increases for each of those years.

“It would be very irresponsible not to do something to generate more revenue,” said board member William Miracle. “I can’t see how future boards will be able to cover costs without [raising taxes] now.”