No Tax Hike in Pottsgrove -- Yet

Photo by Evan Brandt

The Pottsgrove School Board gets ready to get going Tuesday night.

The Pottsgrove School Board did something unusual Tuesday night.

They adopted a preliminary budget with no tax increase, but with a $2.5 million deficit.

And they did it unanimously.

Which either makes them irresponsible, or geniuses.

What better way to point out the uselessness of the state's Act 1 laws which require school districts to go through the motions of adopting a budget everyone knows they are not going to adopt, then to just adopt it "as is."

How many times does a school board get beat up in Sound-Off for adopting a preliminary budget with a ridiculously high tax hike, even when its only pro-forma?

This time, the headline for Pottsgrove will say "no tax hike" or something like it, even though anyone who is paying attention knows it will likely be somewhere between zero and 2.4 percent, which is the limit set by the Act 1 index.

They'll stay within that limit because they also voted against applying for the "exceptions" that would allow them to raise taxes above 2.4 percent in what promises to be a very tough budget year; what with a new governor, a Legislature in control of the opposite party and, perhaps most significant, contract negotiations with the district's teachers.

So it promises to be a very interesting year.

Here are the Tweets from last night's meeting, along with some followers who responded live and whose Tweets I have include as well -- which is always fun.