Ellwood School Taxes Increase for 2009-10
June 12, 2009
ECO Staff – Laure Cioffi, senior journalist
ELLWOOD CITY – Taxpayers in the
Ellwood Area School District will have to break out some more cash
this year.
The Board of Education formally
passed the 2009-2010 school budget Thursday night with a 0.75 mill tax
increase.
The cost to a taxpayer living in
a home with an assessed value of $50,000 will see a $37.50 increase to
their tax bill. That taxpayer will pay a total of $790.50 in school
taxes this coming school year.
Schools business manager Richard
Zarone previously said that all Ellwood City taxpayers are expected to
get an estimated $179 reduction in their school taxes through state’s
Property Tax Relief Fund, which is funded by gaming revenues.
 He said any tax increase would be
absorbed by the gaming revenue reduction. Taxpayers living in homes
assessed as high as $135,000 would still see a decrease in their
school tax bills of $77.75 under that plan, he said.
Zarone said this year’s $25
million budget is based on figures provided in February by the state
for education subsidies. The Pennsylvania legislature has not passed
its 2009-2010 budget and those figures are not yet official.
Part of this year’s tax increase
is due to the district construction project now underway at Lincoln
High School. The school board borrowed nearly $6 million to pay for
the work.
(Laure Cioffi can be reached at
LaureCioffi@EllwoodCity.org)
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