The Panther Valley School Board held firm on not raising taxes.

The board on Wednesday approved a $37.2 million budget for the 2024-25 school year with no tax increase, but not before two other proposals with tax increases failed.

School directors defeated a $37.5 million spending plan that would have increased taxes 0.6 mills for Carbon County residents, and 2.26 mills for Coaldale residents on a 5-4 vote.

Business manager Jesse Walck, when presenting the first proposal, said that the administration wasn’t seeking any additional funds to operate the district than it did last year.

But due to a change in how the state funded low-income seniors and disabled people, there is less assessed value, he explained, necessitating a tax increase to keep funding at the same level as last year.

“To keep the same amount of revenue, because of the way the state does this, they’re taking money and giving property tax relief to some off the backs of others,” board member Michael Alabovitz said.

“This doesn’t make any sense. To keep the same amount of revenue, we have to raise taxes,” he said. “If we want to keep it flat, we’re going to lose revenue. This is basic nonsense. Thank your state government for this.

“That’s not property tax relief. It’s just nonsense,” Alabovitz said.

Walck agreed.

A second proposal brought to the board, which shifted the $186,000 the district lost in assessed value out of its proposed revenues, failed to come to a vote. It had a zero millage increase in Carbon County and a 1.01 mill increase for those in Schuylkill County.

“So, you’re saying … we’re going to lose $186,000 and we would have to raise taxes in Coaldale?” Director Pat Leonzi asked.

Walck explained that Coaldale properties didn’t gain as much value as Carbon County’s did, and it drives up the millage in Coaldale under the state formula.

“We don’t have a choice,” he said. “We have to rebalance it by law.”

A tax increase at 1.01 mills for Coaldale residents equates to $4.21 a month for a property assessed at $50,000, Walck said. At 2.26 mills, it would be $9.42 a month, he said.

Board member Keith Krapf, who is from Coaldale, asked what the fund balance was at, and the reply from Board President Daniel Matika was $8,800,000.

“If we have a $9 million fund balance, I have zero interest in raising taxes at all,” Krapf said. “We sit here and say that we’re not going to run things on the taxpayers’ backs. We have a $9 million fund balance, that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Alabovitz pointed out that the district has that fund balance thanks to federal funding, which is going to go away with time.

“We’re talking about the need to build a new school,” he said. “Without funds, you’re not going to do it.”

Matika said that they all sat a meeting and said they’re not going to raise taxes, and he was among them.

“I won’t raise taxes,” Matika said.

Alabovitz countered that he’s not raising taxes to build a school, he’s raising taxes to keep the budget the way it was.

“It’s not my fault they took the money away,’ he said.

Matika agreed, but he also can’t see having a $9 million fund balance and raising taxes.

Walck said the alternative he presented was with a $186,000 tax cut across the district, but he couldn’t do anything about the state’s rebalancing formula that increases Coaldale’s millage.

Board member Anthony DeMarco asked if there was any way that Walck could do a zero tax increase for both Carbon and Schuylkill residents and the answer was no.

“It’s literally impossible, because there was such a change in property values,” Walck said.

Matika said years ago they changed the numbers to keep Coaldale at a zero increase, but Carbon got a tax decrease - and the district lost more money.

“At that point, you’re probably going to be running a deficit,” Walck said.

The board asked Walck to rework the numbers and without a tax increase to Coaldale. The result was a budget proposal with no increase in Coaldale and a 1.75 mill decrease in Carbon County, and a $338,000 loss in revenue to the district.

Krapf thought the state put the district in “a horrible predicament” with a rebalancing formula that forces the district to give some taxpayers a break, in order to keep another community’s taxes level.

“Or if you’re raising one, you’re significantly raising the other,” he said. “I think it puts us in a tough position all the way around.”

The board also weighed the fact that they don’t know how much the state will be providing in basic education funding, as lawmakers don’t start finalizing the state budget until June.

Superintendent David McAndrew Jr. said he was told that the district would receive at least what it got last year, and that amount was in the district’s proposed budget.

“I was told there would not be a decrease,” he said.

The board passed the reworked budget that provided a 1.75 mill tax decrease for Carbon County residents and kept taxes the same in Schuylkill County on 8-1 vote, with Alabovitz voting no.

The spending plan has a projected fund balance of $9 million, expenses of $37,228,719, projected revenues of $37,202,274.62, and an estimated fund balance of $8,973,555.12 as of June 30, 2025. It also projects a deficit of $26,444.88.