JACKSON TWP — Seneca Valley School District officials are a little nervous over a proposal by state budget negotiators that would require school districts to put any property tax increase to a vote by residents.

School officials are worried about what such a referendum would mean for the future of the district and the programming it is able to offer.

Should a referendum not pass, it could result in major budget cuts for non-mandated programs such as athletics, music, non-mandated busing, needed building repairs and even a decrease in staff.

The Seneca Valley School Board at its meeting Tuesday passed a resolution opposing legislation that would mandate referendums for property tax increases.

The district is asking the state House of Representatives to oppose any legislation that would mandate the back end referendum and support the existing law — Act 1 of 2006.

That law provides for a voter referendum, but only if the district ventures above a state-calculated tax rate increase. The law also provides for districts to request an exception so they can raise taxes to cover mandated budget costs that are beyond their control, for things such as special education programs and pension contributions.

The state's projection is that the employer contribution rate for the Pennsylvania Public School Employees Retirement System will cost the district and taxpayers more than $40 million between the 2015-2016 school year and the 2019-2020 school year.

Board President Eric DiTullio said that is $40 million the district will have to find.

DiTullio said the referendum the Legislature is looking to include is not fixing the problem, but addressing a symptom.

“It is not fixing the disease, it is only taking care of the cough,” he said. “They need to make real reforms to fix things.”

The PSERS contribution alone increased 20 percent last year and will increase 15 percent this year, DiTullio said. The district has an additional cost of about $2 million, which is 1.75 percent of the entire budget.

DiTullio asked if the referendum were in place, how would the district have paid for that?

He also noted that if all of the extracurricular activities were gone it would only save the district about $800,000.

“That leaves a $1.2 million hole just for this year that we would have to somehow find that money if the referendum was to fail,” he said. “OK, how do we do that? Well, we would have to eliminate over 15 teaching positions just to pay that bill for this year.”

DiTullio said the state does not allow the district to furlough teachers, because under the school code Seneca Valley is a growing district with a population increase. The only way it can is if the district were to eliminate programming.

“So not only would we not have any sports, any music or band, we would also have to start looking at eliminating AP and honors classes,” he said. “This is just not our district, other districts are going to have to do this too. Public education as a whole in Pennsylvania would take a huge hit.”

DiTullio said this is another example of the Legislature making the elected volunteers do their “dirty work.”

If there were a real referendum, the school board members would have to go out and campaign for it, DiTullio said.

DiTullio said if people get to vote on an increase in taxes, they will say no.

The district also has kept property tax increases within the Act 1 of 2006 index in four of the last 10 years, the resolution states.

Board Vice President James Nickel said the district has a large budget, but it spends each dollar carefully.

“Each of us when considering raising taxes, we take all of our constituencies to heart,” he said.

Nickel said the Act 1 inflationary index that was put in place in 2006 stated that the district can make an increase in taxes based on an index of inflation.

“We all know that things rise in price,” Nickel said.

Seneca Valley also has used PDE-approved referendum exemptions in six of the last 10 years for increases in mandated special education expenditures and legislated increases in the PSERS employer contribution rates.

According to the resolution, the mandates for special education have increased the district's actual special education expenditures by about $675,000 each year over the last eight years.

Frederick Peterson, school board member, said as stewards of the educational system, it would be irresponsible for them not to speak out in opposition to this plan.

“It is really a Band-Aid approach to the kick the can down the road, quick fix, politically expedient kinds of decisions that have brought us to the place where we are now,” Peterson said.