montgomery township north penn school district w-2 submission

“It’s not a stretch to say that it’s happening throughout the commonwealth.” “These are just twelve districts there are 500 in Pennsylvania,” DeFoor said. It’s not yet clear how many more school boards have done the same. West Chester Area School District, Chester and Delaware counties.School District of Lancaster, Lancaster County and.Penn Manor School District, Lancaster County.North Penn School District, Montgomery County.Northampton Area School District, Northampton County.North Allegheny School District, Allegheny County.Neshaminy School District, Bucks County.Lower Merion School District, Montgomery County.Hempfield School District, Lancaster County.

Cannon-McMillian School District, Washington County.

Bethlehem Area School District, Northampton and Lehigh counties.

Abington School District, Montgomery County.

The following schools were audited, all of which have increased taxes without a public referendum: “These districts found a way to use the law to their advantage so they could always raise taxes,” DeFoor said. Instead, the school districts have used it as a “regular budgeting tool,” DeFoor said. The law was meant to be used as an extreme measure for financial hardship. The audit found that the school districts did this repeatedly - collectively, they raised taxes 37 times from 2018–2021.Īs a result, though they increased taxes, the districts have $390 million in their general funds accounts “that is sitting unspent,” DeFoor said. “For nearly a year, our audit team looked in this practice to see whether school districts appropriately used referendum exceptions to raise property taxes without voter input.” “For years, there’s been concerns raised to us from the General Assembly and from residents about school districts who are raising taxes while seemingly having enough money in the reserves to cover any type of budget gaps,” DeFoor said. READ MORE - Guy Ciarrocchi: Charter schools work

Montgomery township north penn school district w-2 submission