North Penn CFO Steve Skrocki, inset, shows possible tax increases for 2024-25 and the resulting revenue and projected deficit, during the school board finance committee meeting on April 23, 2024.
Board cites high school renovations, infrastructure backlog as reasons for hike
A 2024-25 budget, and the accompanying tax increase, are now on the books in North Penn.
School board members voted unanimously on June 20 to approve a $322 million budget with a 4.49 percent tax increase, which staff and board members have argued for months is needed to tackle a long to-do list.
“Most of our neighbors maxed out: to the north, 5.3 percent, to the south I think also 5.3 percent. We’ve tried to make sure there was compromise and consensus, because there’s no other district that has had to deal with a can that’s been kicked down the road for so many decades, in terms of infrastructure,” said school board member Jonathan Kassa.
In May, the board voted unanimously to advertise a $322 million budget with a 4.49 percent tax increase, a $197 hike for the average taxpayer. That vote came after a series of special finance committee meetings since February presenting the 2024-25 budget requests for each department, and outlining the implications of a record-high Act 1 index, the state-set percentage at which taxes can be raised each year without a voter referendum.
North Penn CFO Steve Skrocki, inset, shows a chart of the state-set Act 1 index of tax increases allowed without a voter referendum, during the school board finance committee meeting on April 23, 2024.The 5.3 percent Act 1 index rate is the largest since that act became law in 2006. Each percentage in tax increase will generate roughly $2.1 million in new revenue for the district, at a cost of roughly $44 to the average residential property owner, based on an average assessed home value of $150,000.
Staff have said much of the increase, roughly $6.8 million, will go to contracted staff salary and benefits, with $460,000 in added costs for charter schools, just under $600,000 in contracted transportation costs, and a $2 million transfer to capital reserves for planned renovations to North Penn High School.
Kassa referenced the frequent pushes the local officials have made for changes in the state’s education subsidies to local districts, saying “Pennsylvania’s funding for the last two decades has been near the bottom of the national list, of other states and what they fund.”
“There isn’t a basic education fair funding formula, which would benefit North Penn, if we just simply received what our taxpayers sent to Harrisburg, and that came back to pay for safe schools, mental health, special education, transportation. Those are the types of costs that the buck is passed to the doorstep of every single taxpayer in North Penn,” he said.
Following a unanimous vote to adopt the budget, the board also voted unanimously to adopt a 2024-25 homestead and farmstead exclusion, with amounts as high as $314 for qualifying homeowners; a three percent increase in salaries for non-union and confidential support staff, and separate departmental budgets for extended school care and community education.
In his monthly report to the board, district CFO Steve Skrocki announced that as of the end of May, the district’s total available funds on hand were roughly $123.8 million, up by roughly $16 million over the prior year. Skrocki added that with the budget now adopted, district business office staff would begin finalizing the district’s real estate tax bills, with those bills likely to be sent by July 1.
July 1 also marks the start of the seventh year of the district’s real estate tax rebate program, which gives certain qualifying seniors and low-income residents a discount on the tax bill they owe to the district. After talks in the spring about changes in the state funding to that program, North Penn now offers 60 percent of a similar state rebate, with the maximum now up to $900 per household for eligible property owners or renters.
“The state had a pretty substantial increase to their program: not only did they increase the amount of dollars that are available for distribution, but they also increased the income threshold,” Skrocki said.
“If you were not eligible because of income in previous years, you might be eligible now,” he said; an application and details on the program are available at the district offices and on the district website.
North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on June 20 and the finance committee is scheduled to next meet at 6 p.m. on July 9, both at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock Street. For more information visit www.NPenn.org.
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