Budget Season: Quaker Valley Approves Preliminary Budget with Plenty of Unknowns

approval of a $42,142,902 million preliminary budget at Tuesday’s school board meeting means the district will apply to the state for permission to raise property taxes by nearly .3 mills.

Under Act 1 of 2006, the district is permitted to ask the state for special exceptions to increase property taxes in the 2012-13 budget above the inflationary index. For Quaker Valley, the index under Act 1 — also known at the Taxpayer Relief Act — is currently set at 1.4 percent, or .2933 mills in tax.

John Sheline, director of finance and operations, said the district essentially had only two options: to pass a motion agreeing to stay within the index or pass a preliminary budget that grants authority to request exceptions.

Sheline said the special exception is the only financially prudent option.

“It’s something we’re really almost forced into because we really don’t know,” Sheline said.

An earlier deadline set by Act 1 forced the board to pass the preliminary budget a month earlier.

Superintendent Joseph Clapper said there’s a lot of unknown information at this point in the .

“This is very early,” Clapper told the board.

An exception would give the district the option to raise taxes beyond the index, and the option to ask taxpayers to approve an increase in a referendum in the primary election, but does not mean officials have to do so. Quaker Valley usually has remained under the index, officials said.

Clapper said he was somewhat confident that the district would not have to go over the index.

Sheline said the district was waiting to learn how state revenue cuts, reassessment numbers, the governor’s budget and other actions could affect the district's budget. Gov. Corbett is expected to present his annual budget address in early February.

Under the law, districts under reassessment are also required to use the previous year’s index, which for Quaker Valley is 1.4 percent. However, Allegheny County Judge Stanton Wettick Jr.'s could increase Quaker Valley's index up to 1.7 percent, or .35 mills in tax.

School director Robert Riker, the board’s finance chairman, described this year's  budget perspective as “somewhere between accounting and reading tea leaves.”

Last year, in the wake of significant from the state and federal government, the district started with a $2 million deficit. Officials were able to curtail spending by , building and departmental expenses, and increasing taxes .25 mills. The district is facing a smaller $1.7 million shortfall at this point, Sheline said.

Clapper has been studying staffing, gauging salary increases, and reviewing building budgets. He said much is expected to change between now and when the final budget is approved. The proposed final budget will be passed on April 24, and a final budget won’t be approved until June 12.

School director Danielle Burnette cast the only vote against the special exception, saying she felt uncomfortable raising taxes and didn’t think it was appropriate to file for an exception.

“I don’t think we should use it, so I don’t think we should ask for it,” she said.

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The preliminary budget is available for review from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily at the Quaker Valley School District administrative offices at 100 Leetsdale Industrial Drive, Leetsdale.