Taxpayer Victory--EASD Will Not Apply to State for Exceptions to 1.7% Tax Cap

EASD will have to pursue deep cuts and a property tax hike of 

1.7% or less to balance the budget this year.

Posted by: Noel Jones


Colin McEvoy's article in today's Express-Times and Chris Baxter's article for The Morning Call both cover last night's school board meeting which saw a packed room, a fair share of public comment, and went well past 10pm. I hadn't had a chance to check the agenda on line before the meeting, so I was surprised to find that neither the "I (heart) Boobies" breast cancer awareness controversy nor the debate as to whether cheerleading should become a competitive sport and satisfy Title IX were on the agenda. Nonetheless, the agenda was four pages long, the most eye-catching item being a resolution to direct Business Manager Marie Guidry to apply to the PA Dept. of Education for an exception to the 1.7% cap on property tax hikes this year.


At the beginning of the meeting, Solicitor McFall read to the public from the Easton Area School District's public comment policy, stipulating that the public may comment at the beginning of the meetings on agenda items only, that residents are to only address Board President Pat Fisher, and are to save any questions for discussion until the time allotted for public comments (on any issue) at the end of the meeting.


Superintendent Susan McGuinley made a big show of starting off the meeting addressing the board and the audience to say that she was introducing a resolution to ask the board to pledge not to exceed a tax

hike of 1.7% because the board and administration understand how hard times are for the taxpayers, which of course, was received well, but left those of us from the public wondering why the request for exemption was on the agenda. Residents got up to speak against requesting the exemption (and against an increase on taxpayers at all), including a representative from the AARP, who pleaded on behalf of senior citizens who are living on fixed incomes and often having to make the decision between buying food or medication in these terrible economic.


Then about half way through the meeting, when the resolution to apply for an exception to the tax hike came up, as four different board members spoke up and made it clear that they were against voting to apply for the exception, Susan McGuinley interrupted the discussion to warn the board that they would not be able to balance the budget with only a 1.7% tax increase. It was such an insult to the public's intelligence after her whole speech at the opening of the meeting that I could have sworn bullets shot out of my eyes. A very energetic discussion ensued, during which time several board members spoke up for the tax payers, and Jodi Hess suggested a very interesting detail--that apparently the district has the ability to also apply to use some of their $8.3 capital projects fund to balance the budget. This came as a surprise, as we were told during last year's budget meetings that money in the capital projects fund cannot be used to balance the budget. Ms. Guidry neglected to tell us then that they could have applied to PDE to use it. Kerri Leonard-Ellison debated the most passionately against applying for the exception, reminding McGuinley that the district still, even after firing 72 teachers, has not gone line by line through the budget to eliminate waste. McGuinley argued that they had, but that is not true. There were several times that taxpayers requested McGuinley to order all departments to examine their budgets line by line and propose a 10% cut all across the board, but she never did. Various departments proposed some cuts, but in the end, the ax came down on the teachers, the crisis counselors, literacy counselors and the tech department, after which the administration saw fit to give themselves a raise.


Thankfully, when it came time to take the vote, the resolution to apply for the exemption from the tax cap failed 8-1. The only board member who voted in favor of applying to the state to be able raise our taxes above the state cap was Tim Reilly, who, sounding a lot like Susan McGuinley, gave the excuse that he would never vote for tax hike higher than the cap, but didn't want to take away the board's ability to do it. Right...


At the end of the meeting, Kerri Leonard-Ellison proposed a resolution asking the board to reaffirm its commitment to the public's right to comment at all public meetings. The resolution was at the request of the College Hill Neighborhood Association, who came to the defense of the taxpayers when the EASD, in violation of the PA Sunshine Laws, banned public comment at the workshop meetings that precede board meetings. A bizarre reticence to this simple vote of good faith ensued, and in the end it only passed 5-4, at which point Susan McGuinley addressed the public and said that she hoped that with this vote we all felt reassured that the board and administrators really did want public comment. A split vote was supposed to reassure us of that--really? 


What is reassuring, is that the board pulled together and voted against giving the administration the ability to raise our taxes above 1.7%. Now taxpayers will have to be vigilant and continue to speak up at the meetings to make sure that waste is cut, that no unnecessary spending is taken on, that the administration does not vote themselves another raise, and that our taxes aren't raised again in these tough economic times.