Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The Poor Tax Payers of Octorara


Ever wonder why property taxes are so high in Octorara compared to more affluent areas of the county like West Chester and Unionville?

One fact, amongst many, presented by district business manager Dan Carsley at Monday night's School Board meeting tells the entire story.

Here it is.  One Mill in the Octorara Area School District generates $665,464 of revenue for the district to use to fund the public school system.  

In West Chester School District, roughly 20 miles to the east of Octorara, that same Mill generates $8,207,667 in revenue for that district's classrooms, an 1,100% difference.  
    Eleven hundred percent!  Hard to believe.

    What that means is one, any school board candidate that tells you the reason why property taxes in Parkesburg are high is because school district spending is out of control, hasn't done their homework and is misleading you. 

    Two, the only sure way of lowering your property taxes is to buy a nice house in an affluent district closer to the city.   

    To read other news from Monday night's school board meeting check out Ellen Brown's informative Octorara Report.

    8 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    Comparing our millage to West Chesters is hardly an even comparison. Obviously WCSD is going to generate more revenue per mill raised. They have over 12,000 students, are the largest populated district in the county and have a $176 million dollar budget to handle 3 high schools, 3 middle schools and 10 elementary schools. As well as one of the largest, if not the largest, business bases in the county. A comparison with Pequa, Solanco or ELANCO would be better.

    Ken Knickerbocker said...

    While its difficult if not impossible to have a conversation with someone named Anonymous, simple math dictates that while Octorara's student population is 1/4 the size of West Chester's, Octorara's ability to raise money to fund classroom learning is less than 10% of West Chester's ability.

    Anonymous said...

    As a separate anonymous poster than the one above, it doesn't really seem that hard to have a conversation. It is certainly not impossible! Some people may work for the school district and have no interest in putting their name out on the board.

    What would be some creative ways to increase revenue? What is West Chester doing?

    Ken Knickerbocker said...

    The West Chester School district does nothing to increase their tax base. The difference between them and us here in Octorara is 1) their homes have a higher market value and 2) they have significantly more commercial real estate where we have more cows. And as someone remarked just yesterday, cows don't pay taxes.

    Anonymous said...

    The I guess over in Unionville all of their Horses are paying taxes then.

    Anonymous said...

    How about a 3rd Anonymous poster! What about Solanco and Pequa Valley, they don't seem to be having the "problems" with a tax base that Octorara is. Their homes are probably assessed very close in value to those in Octorara. And they have a lot, if not more, cows!

    KareN said...

    One thing that really hurts our tax base is all the properties that are not on the tax roll due to preservation programs. Property tax is not a fair way to fund schools IMO.

    Anonymous said...

    As someone who has been in the real estate venue for over 20 yrs and owns property in parkesburg, the octorara school taxes are hurting home prices. Many buyers have eliminated looking for property in OSD because of the highest taxes in Chester county( by far). Less buyers mean lower home prices for sellers who want to sell. If the tax structure doesn't become in line with the other SD in the county home prices will fall, thus residents will be paying high taxes and also losing equity in their homes.