C-K board majority supports tax hike

Five members vote in favor of increase in informal straw poll

CLAYSBURG -- Five Claysburg-Kimmel School District board members voiced their support for raising taxes to the Act 1 Index limit of 7.7% during its committee of the whole meeting Wednesday evening.

In an unofficial straw poll, board members Jeremy Knott, Richard Gergely, Amy Claar-Gill, Roger Knisely and Joseph Musselman voted in favor of raising taxes. Mandi Daugherty, Daniel Potter and Mona Eckley didn't vote against the measure, but instead said that they didn't know what they wanted to do yet. Board member Heidi Kennedy was not present for the meeting.

Raising taxes to the Act I Index for the 2024-25 school year would cost the average homeowner about $0.22 a day or $1.52 a week per household, generating about $321,740 in revenue for the district, according to business manager Dena Burket.

If the board chose to increase taxes to half the Act 1 limit, it would generate about $160,865, Burket said.

By raising to the index, Greenfield and Kimmel townships' millage rates would be increased to 9.76 and 11.71 mills, respectively.

"If we do the whole Act 1 increase this year, over five years it would generate $1.6 million," Burket said. "If we go half, over five years, we're looking at $804,000."

Burket said she kept state funding in the district's budget the same as the 2023-24 school year because there are "too many unknowns" with the government's proposed budget.

With federal, state and local funding at the Act 1 limit, the district would have a revenue of about $14.5 million, while with local funding at half the limit, revenue would be about $14.3 million.

"Our debt service loan payment that we pay, and how we structured them, there was a $6,000 difference from last year to this year," Burket said. "And that's why you can't use the athletic project as the reason for raising taxes."

District expenditures for the 2024-25 school year are an estimated $15.25 million, leaving a deficit of about $703,000 at the Act 1 Index or $864,000 with half, Burket said. This includes $100,000 from the district's budgetary reserves.

"This is with everything in the wish list, but it's giving you two options," Burket said. "One with the full increase at the Act 1 limit or with the half increase."

Looking at the district's wish list, Gergely asked if there was anything that could easily be taken off to make up the deficit.

"The capital projects were a recommendation from an auditor and it was something that we were just planning ahead," Superintendent Brian Helsel said.

However, board member Daniel Potter said he didn't want to "whack something based on a shortfall of say, $250,000" when the district has a $5 million fund balance.

"If we're at $450,000 and we're talking about taking $50,000 off of that, it makes that difference up a little bit," Knott said. "If you go from $691,000 to $640,000, it looks a little bit better than adding or subtracting $50,000 off of $15.235 million."

Knott also said that raising taxes "on a budget like this, with $321,000, is like 2 percent" so the board only really has control of that 2%.

Gergely advocated for raising the taxes to the full 7.7%, saying that the amount of money the district could lose over time if they don't raise taxes scares him.

"(Burket) had a chart up here that said that if we only raised to half of the Act 1 limit, over a five-year period of time, we've lost $600,000," Gergely said. "In 10 years, now that's $1.2 million, if we don't raise taxes now."

The board will further discuss its 2024-25 budget during its April 17 meeting.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.