Tax collectors in Lehighton Area School District will get a 5-cent per bill raise each year over the next four years after the school board adopted a compensation resolution Monday night.

The compensation rate is set at $125 per month and $3.05 per bill collected in 2018, $3.10 in 2019, $3.15 in 2020 and $3.20 in 2021.The district had offered tax collectors an extra $25 per month that it figured to realize from savings if each collector used a Berks County Intermediate Unit software program when preparing and sending out bills.Tax collectors, however, cannot be forced to use a specific program."We fully agree with the rationale to get all tax collectors using the same program," Parryville Tax Collector Bruce Koch told the board Monday night. "Five out of the six collectors in the district use the Municipal Tax System software. The IU program only provides collection for school taxes and would require us to have a second program to manage municipal and county taxes. It's not fair to tie an increase in compensation to force us to use an inferior program at an inflated cost."Lehighton Business Brian Feick said in the end, the software program choice doesn't matter as much as eliminating problems that popped up in past years such as late billing and billing of tax-exempt properties."It's our responsibility to make sure reports are correct," Feick said. "We do not review the bills. That is what the tax collectors are elected for."Koch disagreed, however, stating that any bills sent to tax-exempt properties fall squarely on the shoulders of the school district."As for any bills that were sent out late, that was due to a problem with a previous printer of the bills," Koch said.The district's finance committee set up a meeting with tax collectors for Feb. 6 to iron out any remaining issues.Feb. 14 is the deadline for any changes to the resolution adopted Monday.