UPDATE: Proposed budget hesitantly okayed

WESTFALL — While they admitted they didn’t believe they would get all the state and federal money they needed to support it without additional local taxes, the Delaware Valley School Board Thursday tentatively approved a proposed $70.4 million, 2009-2010 school budget. The budget, to be finalized in June, would require restoration of about $2 million in state and federal aid to retain its current zero-increase in property taxes. If that funding is not forthcoming, expenditure cuts or new taxes will have to replace it, officials said. The district’s zero budget was completed and balanced, Budget and Finance Committee Chair Ed Silverstone said Thursday. “But before this meeting,” he said the state Senate cut the anticipated $1.7 million annual increase in district aid, and diverted federal stimulus funding, which together totaled about $2 million. Silverstone said that lacking those funds, cuts of $725,000 in program expenditures in addition to a tax increase of some $925,000, about 2.5 percent, would be needed to balance the budget. By law, the board was required to act on a budget at the May 14 meeting. With the prospect of reopening the budget after the July 1 beginning of the fiscal year, should cuts be required, board members voted approve their planned zero-increase budget and look for the state to restore the $2 million. “Everyone has to get in touch with their legislators. We have to try to send a message,” said board member Diane French. French said raising taxes on many people who can’t afford them now “is not an option.” On the other side of the argument, board member Pam Lutfy said she could not support a budget, when she doesn’t know where the money is coming from. Lufty said that proposing a zero-increase only raises false hopes for local taxpayers. The budget was approved by a 6-2 vote, with Lutfy and Sue Schor voting no. Board President Bob Goldsack was ill and did not attend the meeting. Look for more on the new budget in the May 22 edition of the Pike County Courier.