Northwest Area Board OKs budget with maximum tax hike
Jun. 24—UNION TWP. — Northwest Area School Board passed a final 2020-21 budget Wednesday with a 4% property tax increase, the maximum allowed under the state law known as Act 1.
The budget sets spending at slightly less than $20.1 million and income at $19.7 million. It raises property taxes to 11.0246 mills. A mill is a $1 tax for every $1,000 of assessed property value. The 4% increase is the most the district could pass without voter approval via referendum or state approval for a narrow list of exceptions to the limit.
Under the law the state passed that legalized gambling, some of the revenue the state gets from gambling goes to offset homeowner and farm owner property taxes. In exchange for that aid, the law set annual limits on property tax increases, known as the Act 1 index. The index can vary from district to district and year to year.
Board Member Peter Lanza abstained, saying he felt the district is "moving in the wrong direction," by raising taxes. Noting the district has a lot of elderly residents on fixed incomes who can't afford to see taxes keep going up. "I think we need to do more work on this."
The board also heard from students Nash Tutorow and Alexis McLaughlin who pitched the idea of a robotics club. They want to see teams formed for different grades, with each team building a robot. The bots would battle each other with the machine that suffers the least damage moving on in the tournament, until a winner was determined.
