Bruce Chambers: The school tax scam at the Great Valley School District

I just received a school board campaign postcard from Lorie Sollenberger who is running for election in Region 2 of the Great Valley School District.

Her main message to the voters is that Great Valley has the second lowest “tax rate” in Chester County, yet is ranked among the best in the area. She wants to keep taxes “low”, have strong schools, and protect property values.

However, she is continuing the deception about “low tax rates” that Great Valley has used for many years. It is a scam to deceive us into believing that our taxes are “low.” Great Valley, in reality, is one of the most expensive school districts in the Commonwealth, spending more than $27,000 per student. How can that be, if we have a “low tax rate”?

This is the scam that has been perpetuated for many years by the School District.

Number one, the “tax rate” she and the District have been using is actually the millage rate, not the tax rate; and it is true that our millage rate is the second lowest in the County.

However, the millage rate is calculated in the following way:

One mill is equal to $1 in tax for every $1,000 of assessed property value.
The school board approves the district’s budget.
The district then takes the total assessed value of all the land in the district and mathematically determines how many total mills are needed to come up with the tax dollars for the approved budget.
Your property’s assessed value is then multiplied by that mill to determine your taxes.

Therefore, the millage rates are mainly based on the value of the land, not the “responsible leadership” of the school board as Ms. Sollenberger and the District would like you to believe.

The reason Great Valley’s millage rate is so low is because of the high value of the land in the District. We have many businesses and corporations in our district and the residential land is very valuable. It is all assessed at a very high value, which means the millage rate will be lower than most other Districts due to the math. The school board can brag about the millage rate, but they have no influence over the main factor which is the value of the land. They are being disingenuous.

Here are the millage rates in this year’s county school budgets. These numbers have no relationship with a fiscally responsible budget. They are just calculations that are driven by property values, not the “responsible leadership” that Sollenberger brags about. Notice the great disparity in the numbers. It is due to land value, not good budgeting.

Great Valley 25.22
Kennett 34.99
Unionville 33.91
Downingtown 31.91
Twin Valley 32.49
West Chester 23.38
Spring Ford 34.18
Tredyffrin 29.65
Owen Roberts 36.35
Phoenixville 35.07
Octararo 43.46
Oxford 38.43

Great Valley has participated in this scam for many years. They increase the budget by a large amount every year and then brag about their “low tax rate.” They now spend over $27,000 per year per student which is one of the highest in the county. However, because of the blessing of high land value, they can continue the scam using the millage rate to convince the voters they are fiscally responsible with our tax dollars. In reality, the opposite is true.

Having served on the school board, I know that most of the public and indeed, most of the school board, does not understand what the millage rate actually represents. It is a tool used by the district to deceive the public and reduce the pressure on the district to have a responsible budget. The sad truth is that if we had a responsible budget in the Great Valley School District, we would have considerably lower taxes.

Bruce Chambers is a former Great Valley School Board Director and President. He served as an officer and pilot in the Air National Guard, worked in federal law enforcement for 27 years rising to the executive level, and was the Director of Cigna Healthcare’s Fraud unit and Ethics program.