Editorial: Tax increase is harsh lesson

The New Kensington-Arnold School District financial situation is an argument for a change in how government — and taxpayers — should think about taxes.

It would be great to fund our schools and other vital public services without requiring everyone to kick money into a collective pot. But failing another revenue stream, or Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates adding a few towns to their Christmas list, taxes are what we have.

New Kensington-Arnold property owners are going to get an ugly surprise next fiscal year as the district is looking down the barrel of a staggering tax increase.

The struggle isn’t shocking. The economy in the area is not robust and the known challenges for the district just swept in five new board members. But those economic realities demonstrate hard truths.

According to Business Manager Jeff McVey, property taxes could spike 7 mills in a proposed budget. The proposed millage increase would add $140 to a homeowner’s tax bill per $20,000 of assessed value. And state law would be bent to its limits to allow such a steep hike.

Even with a tax increase of this degree, the fund balance will still be drained dry and the 2020-21 fiscal year will end in a pool of red ink.

Ten years ago, the district sat on a fund balance of $7.6 million. So how did this happen?

Ten years of spending more than what came in is part of it. The other is not changing what was coming in.

Paying more taxes is not fun and no one wants to do it, but government bodies can’t be squeamish about doing what needs to be done. A school district’s bills are no different than a family’s. They can’t just be stuffed in a drawer without consequences.

In this case, while New Kensington-Arnold was spending more money, the board wasn’t raising taxes. That could be seen at Wednesday’s committee meeting when new board member John DeAntonio feared dealing with the inherited problem would make the new members “look like the bad guy.”

But if taxes need to be raised to meet basic needs, they have to be raised, and pretending they don’t while spending down the savings does no one any good.

A good government body should keep spending as low as it can. At the same time, it should acknowledge that the cost of fuel oil and gasoline and electricity and salaries isn’t dropping and build in small increases if needed.

New Kensington-Arnold, however, siphoned its tank while going four consecutive years with no increase, and the taxpayers are now the ones punished with a ballooning of taxes.

“The right thing would have been moderate tax increases every single year,” said board President John Cope. “Now we’re stuck.”

Schools exist to teach lessons. It looks like the board learned one. Other government bodies should pay attention.