Schools
Flat Revenue Projections: “Good News” for Marple Newtown School District
The district's business administrator said previous projections predicted revenues would decrease.
NEWTOWN SQUARE–Revenue for is projected to be flat for the 2012-2013 school year, district Business Administrator Joseph Driscoll told the Marple Newtown school board’s Budget and Finance Committee at a meeting on Oct. 11.
During the meeting, Driscoll spoke about revenue projections as part of his update on the 2012-2013 budget. Next year’s preliminary school budget has to be out for public inspection 22 days earlier than usual, on Jan. 5, 2012, because it is a presidential election year, Driscoll told Marple Newtown Patch after the meeting.
“The revenue is pretty much flat,” Driscoll told the committee, referring to all revenue for the school district, including local taxes, state revenue and federal revenue. “I don’t see a lot of changes.”
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Driscoll said he bases his revenue projections on three-year averages.
Driscoll said flat revenue “doesn’t sound like good news but it is” because a couple of years ago, the school district was expecting a downtrend in revenues.
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Driscoll stressed that this is the preliminary budget and the first of three versions of next year’s budget.
“By the time we get to June and levying the taxes, we’ll have a much better picture,” Driscoll said.
During his budget update, Driscoll also reported that the Act 1 Index–the level to which the school board can raise the district budget without putting it out to referendum—is confirmed to be 1.7 percent for next year, compared to 1.4 percent for last year.
