It’s Official, Cranberry Holds the Line on Taxes for 2013

Real estate taxes will remain at 13 mils under the finalized budget plan.

It’s official—there will be no new taxes for Cranberry residents in 2013. At Thursday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, officials unanimously approved a finalized budget with no increase in tax rates, water, sewer or solid waste fees. There will minor increases in user fees for recreational programs. Budget revenues are estimated at $17,238, 266 in 2013, with expenses estimated at the same amount. Real estate taxes would remain at 13 mils under the plan, including 8.03 mils for the general fund, 1 mil for public buildings, .85 mil for road maintenance equipment, 1 mil for the library and 2.12 mils for the Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Company. Each mill brings in about $363,000 in revenue for the township, according to Cranberry manager …

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Patch Poll: PA House Panel Considers Bill To Eliminate School Property Taxes

Revenue would be made up by higher income and sales taxes.

As school districts across the state consider raising taxes to offset cutbacks in funding from Harrisburg, a state lawmaker thinks the time has come to eliminate property taxes as a way of financing public schools. To make up the difference, he wants to raise the personal income and sales taxes. The House Finance Committee took up House Bill 1776 Monday. Sponsored by Rep. Jim Cox, R-Berks, the measure would hike the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent statewide and raise the personal income tax rate from 3.07 percent to 4 percent. In Allegheny County, the sales tax would rise to 8 percent.  In addition, many goods and services currently exempt from the sales tax would be taxable under the bill, which aims to raise $10 billion dollars to …

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Letters to the Editor

Letter to the Editor: SV School Board Needs to Find Way to Stem Rise in Millage

Cranberry resident Earl Grubbs writes that a great education should not result in an inverted yield curve for area residents and businesses.

Any idea what the following numbers represent: 97.24, 100, 105.7, 107.71 and 114.91? Simply stated, 97.24 represents the Seneca Valley School District tax mill rate for 2009; 100 was the mill rate for tax year 2010; 105.6 represents the rate after the 5.6-mill increase for tax year 2011; 107.71 represents the 2-percent rate increase index currently authorized by law to SVSD for tax year 2012; and 114.91 is the mill rate being explored as one of four possible budget scenarios to fill the projected $4 million budget shortfall for 2012-2013 school year in order to maintain the SVSD fund at its current balance of $8,821,268. If you believe the taxing pain was excruciatingly painful the last budget cycle with the 5.6-mill rate increase, you …

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Metcalfe Asks Governor to Reject Seneca Valley Act 1 Exception Request

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe pens a letter to Gov. Tom Corbett encouraging his administration to reject the district's request for permission to raise property taxes.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, is encouraging Governor Tom Corbett to reject Seneca Valley’s recent application to the state Department of Education for permission to raise property taxes. “I strongly encourage your administration to carefully scrutinize the Act 1 waiver application from the Seneca Valley School District, to ensure the budget presented is in full compliance with state law and that funding is not being shifted to indicate a shortage in areas that qualify as an exception,” he said in a letter dated Jan. 18. In the face of a proposed preliminary budget that shows a $4.8 million shortfall for the 2012-13 school year, Seneca Valley’s school board unanimously on Monday approved a motion allowing the district to ask the …

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Miranda Malone

6:07 pm on Monday, January 23, 2012

Thanks, Christine, for YOUR INPUT. With all of the RETIREMENT benefits and HEALTH care Benefits these TEACHERS' and UNION HEADS received, I am SURPRISED that we can KEEP our head above water at this POINT. Mr, Metcalfe is PROVIIDNG EXCELLENT representation for all of us in the Seneca Valley School District. He has been VERY MUCH HATED by the teachers' union and relatives of the teachers WHO SIT …   more ›

Budget Time: Seneca Valley to Apply to State For Act 1 Exceptions

A proposed preliminary budget shows the school district is facing a $4.8 million shortfall for the 2012-13 school year.

In the face of a proposed preliminary budget that shows a $4.8 million shortfall for the 2012-13 school year, Seneca Valley officials at Monday’s school board meeting unanimously approved a motion allowing the district to apply to the state for permission to raise property taxes. “Next, we attack the issues of closing the $4.8 million deficit,” district business manager Lynn Burtner said. The district plans to ask the state for special exceptions under Act. 1, which would permit the district to increase property taxes above the inflationary index. For Seneca Valley, the index under Act 1—also known at the Taxpayer Relief Act—is set at 2 percent, or 2.11 mills of tax. Although this action would give them the option of raising taxes beyond …

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Honk if You Love Taxes!

Can you hear the sounds of silence?

My enthusiasm for paying taxes is as great as the next fellow’s. Which is to say, very little. Nobody likes paying taxes. If you’re a public official, you probably don’t like imposing them, either. That’s nothing new. Taxes have never been popular—anywhere. The disconnect between taxes and public input on the matter was at the heart of America’s Declaration of Independence more than 200 years ago. At the same time, nobody loves paying insurance premiums, making mortgage payments or paying their cable bills, either. Some of those costs can be whittled down by cutting back on such things as premium channels or increasing insurance deductibles or refinancing home loans. It makes good sense to do all those things.  After those steps have been …

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Seneca Valley Preliminary Budgeting Process Off to an Early Start

The district also unveils a chart comparing the tax amount Seneca Valley residents pay with the amount paid by those in neighboring school districts.

Thanks to the upcoming presidential election, the preliminary budgeting process for the 2012-13 school year already is underway at Seneca Valley. “Were looking at a plan of action in January instead of February this year,” district Business Manager Lynn Burtner said at Monday’s school board meeting. Under the Taxpayer Relief Act, commonly known as Act 1, school districts must introduce a preliminary budget 110 days prior to the primary election, which usually occurs in May. Because the 2012 presidential primary election is scheduled for April, Burtner said Seneca Valley would need to move on its preliminary budget by the Jan. 4 school board meeting. District officials will have to decide if they will adopt a resolution saying they will not…

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