Norwin OKs tax hike by 5-4 vote

Norwin School District property owners will see a 2.9% increase in real estates taxes after the board board Monday narrowly approved the spending plan for the district.

By a 5-4 vote, the board OK’d a $76.93 million budget that will increase property taxes in North Huntingdon, North Irwin and Irwin by 2.4 mills to 84.8 mills in the next school year. For the 18 properties in White Oak and South Versailles that are served by Norwin, taxes will increase 0.36 mill to 12.72 mills.

A homeowner with a property at the median assessed value of $22,130 will pay an extra $53 a year, or $4.42 per month.

Superintendent Jeff Taylor said this is the first time in more than six years that Norwin approved a budget that did not raise taxes to the maximum allowed under the state formula. Norwin could have raised taxes by 3.4%.

If the board did not increase taxes, “then programs might be significantly impacted for our students next year,” Brian Carlton, board president, said in a statement.

The tax hike will generate an additional $980,000 for the district. The millage Norwin levies for its Westmoreland County municipalities includes 1.2 mills collected for the Norwin Public Library, as required by a voter referendum.

Carlton and fellow directors Tony Corsa, William Essay, Donald Rhodes and Patrick Lynn voted for the budget, while Darlene Ciocca, Raymond Kocak, Joanna Jordan and Robert Wayman opposed it.

“We must be more diligent on living within our means,” Ciocca said.

Ciocca said Norwin should have used about $636,000 in the budgetary reserve, which contains the $336,700 from the federal government to cover covid-19-related expenses under the CARES Act.

Ryan Kirsch, business affairs director, said the one-time federal funding will help, but creates a gap to fill for the 2021-22 school year.

The school district is projected by the Pennsylvania Association School of Business Officials to lose $2.16 million because of covid-19, Taylor said.

Wayman questioned the validity of those projections of lost revenue, pointing out that the stock market is rebounding. Making comparisons to the recession of 2008-2009 is not accurate because the economy is stronger than in the previous recession, Wayman said.