Lawmakers in Harrisburg can take as long as they want to pass a budget, but school districts don't get the same luxury.

Pennsylvania school districts are required by law to pass a preliminary budget by the end of January.The Panther Valley school board passed a preliminary spending plan for the 2016-17 school year Thursday night. It includes a tax increase of 7.4 mills for Carbon County residents and 4.25 mills for Schuylkill.Officials stressed that the tax increase is not final. Despite that, three members still voted against the budget."How can anyone around here afford a 7.4-mill increase? This is not a real number, and I won't support it. You have your county and borough taxes, too," school board member Irene Genther said.Genther, Anthony DeMarco and Renee DeMelfi voted against the budget.Many factors are still to be determined that will affect the final 2016-17 tax rate for Panther Valley residents."Last year's (preliminary) budget had a 4-mill increase. We ended up with zero," Kenneth Marx, business manager, said.The budget does include about $1 million in new expenses, most of which are out of the district's control. Marx said that 75 percent is salary and pension benefits, with the other 25 percent going to increased costs for charter school and special education placements.The district's teacher's union, the Panther Valley Education Association, is also working without a contract at the moment.The budget also depends largely on how much the district receives from the state.Ideally, the school board will learn that number sometime around June 1 when the state passes its 2016-17 budget, but for now, Harrisburg has its hands full with this year's.In past years, Harrisburg has guaranteed every district in the state it would not receive less funding than the year before in a practice known as "hold harmless."With legislators talking about making big changes to the way Harrisburg funds education, there is no guarantee for 2016-17. Because of the strict timeline schools must follow for their budgets, they have to ask for the maximum tax increase in January, a number that usually goes down as they get closer to a final spending plan."If we don't put a tax increase on the preliminary budget, we can't go back," Marx said.Some board members expressed shock at the number, even after they were told that it would not be in the final budget. Board President DeMarco made it clear that preliminary or final, he was not in favor of the increase."I can't look somebody in the face with a 7.4-mill increase," DeMarco said. "This isn't a Panther Valley-created problem. It's the pension and charter schools.""Regardless of whether it is a Panther Valley-created problem," board member Dan Heaney said. "It is still a Panther Valley problem."