According to this article in the Whitehall Times, the Whitehall school district will not increase taxes this coming school year. This was facilitated by the bad economy and Whitehall’s decline as a town which means falling enrollment for the foreseeable future. That’s the good news.
If you read the article though, the school district is still not being responsible with our tax dollars.
“The board will also ask voters to cast their ballots for a proposition to increase the capital project fund balance by $500,000 and raise the funds ceiling from $1.5 million to $3.5 million. “This is money that will be put aside for future capital projects,” said Watson. “The taxpayers would still have to vote on whether or not the money could be used to fund a project or not.”
In other words, instead of cutting the budget more and returning the money to the taxpayers as enrollment drops and Whitehall dies, they want to put the yearly budget overcharges in reserve accounts to fund future improvements … like a new gym. These are the games the Whitehall District has played for years.
Many will remember the $2.5 million dollar project that built a new addition and new tennis courts that was funded from reserve accounts in 2006. The superintendents of many school districts have been called out on this issue by local newspapers, because when they go to spend the money they claim it has no effect on taxes. When in fact, it has had an effect on taxes all along as they overcharge and over budget and put the excess in reserve accounts to pay for future expansion, which in Whitehall’s case, can’t even be justified with their projected enrollment figures. You never see tax cuts for this reason, because any excess gets “banked” only to be spent later.
The board could have simply returned this money to the taxpayers in the form of lower taxes but instead placed a new referendum on the ballot which they hope will pass. This will give them cover to stick their overcharges in reserve accounts for years to come.
Change!