Tamaqua Area School Board on Tuesday reviewed a preliminary budget for the 2024-25 school year, which included a 3.17 mill tax increase.

The proposed increase, which is the allowed millage increase under Act 1, amounts to an additional $1,155,872 in revenues from real estate taxes, said Connie Ligenza, business manager.

The increase amounts to about $120 a year for the average taxpayer across all municipalities, she said.

The school board had the option last year to approve a budget with a 2.41 mill tax hike, but chose to adopt a revised proposal without an increase.

The last increase, which was a 4.8% increase, happened in the previous budget cycle for the 2023-24 school year, which was approved in 2022.

Overall revenue for the district is expected to increase $3.09 million, or 8.4%, with a breakdown as follows: $1,607,818, local revenue; $1,602,102, state revenue, and $118,811, federal revenue. The federal revenue is actually a decrease of 11.6%, she said.

Ligenza pointed out that state and local revenues were roughly the same, but she only included half of the $2.2 million in basic education funding proposed in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget.

She attended a state business managers’ conference two weeks earlier, where she and others were advised not to include any of the funding in the budget proposals, she said.

“Immediately, you have a bonanza of business managers and CFOs saying come on, we can’t do that, we have no credibility when we go to our board and say nothing, and then it winds up being even $1 million,” Ligenza said. “It just leaves everyone in an uncomfortable situation.

“This is my best guess,” she said, pointing to the $1.68 million she included in for basic education funding in this initial budget proposal. “I honestly have no idea what this is going to look like when it’s finished.”

Fair funding

Superintendent Ray Kinder noted that this budget does not include any funding from the fair funding lawsuit, as they’ve gotten no indication that this is going to happen, he said.

Tamaqua Area, like neighboring Panther Valley, would benefit from the increase in funding. The state has yet to move forward with a new funding formula after the Commonwealth Court last year ruled the current formula was unconstitutional and put students in poor districts at a disadvantage.

“They all keep saying we’re going to have to work on it,” Kinder said. “We have not heard anything that there’s anything imminent, or anything coming.”

The district’s expenses did increase by $1.94 million, or 5.1%, and among the drivers of the increase are salaries and benefits, which are up 3.65% and 6.3% respectively, Ligenza said.

“The lion’s share of that is health insurance,” she said. “We’re looking at a 10% increase in that line item.”

An expense breakdown includes salaries at $14,045,558, or 36%; benefits at $12,142,741, or 32%; services at $7,651,981, or 19%; supplies at $1,394,375, or 4%, and equipment and other at $2,735,372, or 8%.

“We’re very much in line with other districts in our demographic,” Ligenza said.

Charter school funding tipped the $2 million mark, coming in at $2,098,065, which is 12% higher, Ligenza said.

“This is unfortunately, not going down,” she said, noting that there is legislation proposed aimed at charter school tuition rates. “I’ve been hearing this since 2006 or 2007, and nothing has happened. I’m by no means holding my breath.”

Ligenza said she would keep the board updated on any changes or progress on that legislation.

The proposed budget with the 3.17-mill tax increase would put available revenue at $41,996,151 and expenses at $39,908,429, leaving a fund balance of $2,087,722 and a deficit of $28,377.

This proposal would keep the fund balance at roughly 5%, Ligenza said. A 5% fund balance would be $1,995,421, and an 8% fund balance would be $3,192,674.

Ligenza said after the meeting that the district would not want to reduce the fund balance below 5%, if other funding sources, such as the increase in local taxes or the governor’s basic education funding proposal, did not happen.

The district’s fund balance has been on a decline since 2019, when it was at $5,061,480. The biggest hit came last year when it dropped just over $1 million.

Expenses

The final thing discussed were board approved expenses, which were listed at $1,108,880. Among those items are $5,230, girls wrestling; $8,400, football uniforms, $5,000, $5 increase for event/game workers; $5,250, 15 football helmets, and $35,000 for salary step increases, such as a teacher going from a bachelor’s to a master’s degree.

There is also $1,000,000 set aside for items for the board to determine, and $50,000 as part of an agreement with St. Luke’s, which usually goes to one project, Ligenza said.

Among the discretionary items are technology upgrades, replacement of aging equipment and facility repairs. Ligenza listed servers, cameras, switches and fibers, curbing repairs, zero-turn mowers and paint for bleachers, but a much longer list was presented to the board.

Board President Larry Wittig questioned an item listed at $400,000, and this was for upgrades for the computer/security devices across the district, Ken Dunkelberger, chief operations officer, said.

Dunkelberger explained after the meeting that the board was presented with a very large wish list of items that need to be done, and the total was over the $1 million set aside.

The board was asked to review the items and come to Dunkelberger, or other administrator with questions before their meeting next month.