What T/E District Residents and Commuters Need to Know About a Possible New Tax

In June, the T/E School Board approved a 3.77 percent tax increase for the current school year. It amounts to an average $171 tax increase for property owners in the Tredyffrin and Easttown. That pales in comparison to what is now being discussed to raise enough money to avoid a huge that looms over the district in the next five years.

Just as one budget is passed, the next is already being debated. Phrases like “budget gap” and words like “deficit” are spoken on a near daily basis. Those who’ve been around long enough to get the lingo know what’s coming next: tax increases.

In the Tredyffrin Easttown School District, budget gaps have become an ongoing problem. And when the Board began looking into solutions, they found a possible solution in an Earned Income Tax or EIT.

The Board has selected a group of nine citizen volunteers, known as the Tax Study Group, to help educate both themselves and the public on the possibility of initiating this tax. Here’s a basic overview.

• A 1 percent Earned Income Tax could generate up to an estimated $23 million in additional revenue each year.
• Half of the EIT would go to the Tredyffrin and Easttown townships.
• Half of the EIT would go to the school district.
• An EIT will not affect retirees and Social Security income.
• An EIT will affect about 59 percent of the residents in T/E (18 – 64 year olds) and anyone who commutes in from other municipalities to work in Tredyffrin and Easttown.
• A household making over $150,000 a year would see a tax increase of about $3,700.
• Those earning less than $150,000 a year in taxable income would be paying an additional $1,000 a year.

The discussion of this tax is still ongoing. A Tax Study Group selected by the school board is set to meet four more times over the next month. The schedule is below.

The district has posted the comprehensive numbers and background information that the Tax Study Group is working with here on the T/E website.

Your next chance to be heard on the EIT is at 7 p.m. this Thursday at the School District office on Valley Road in Tredyffrin.

TE.patch.com will be following the Tax Study Group hearings and the EIT issue in the T/E School Board throughout the process.

The upcoming meeting schedule is as follows.

Thursday, September 15, 2011 – 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Thursday, September 22, 2011 – 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Thursday, October 6, 2011 – 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Thursday, October 13, 2011 – 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.