posted by Joe Polk at 12:05 PM /
The first half of the Mt. Lebanon school board's Monday budget meeting focused on what school directors termed "nickel and dime" cuts to reduce the 1.53-mill tax hike in the proposed preliminary budget.
The proposed cuts, suggested by department heads and administrators, included such measures as reducing purchases of sheet music and textbooks, photocopying elementary math work sheets rather than giving each child a color copy and forgoing preventative maintenance on microscopes.
Link: www.post-gazette.com/pg/08087/868183-55.stm
The proposed cuts, suggested by department heads and administrators, included such measures as reducing purchases of sheet music and textbooks, photocopying elementary math work sheets rather than giving each child a color copy and forgoing preventative maintenance on microscopes.
Link: www.post-gazette.com/pg/08087/868183-55.stm
Labels: school board, school district
1 Comments:
I think some of the current dialogue is constructive and overdue. Last year’s TIF process is instructive on how earlier administrations (before Mr. Allison) approached their taxing authority.
During the process, the District asked its financial advisor “Is the amount of the TIF reasonable … without causing undue stress upon the Taxing Bodies’ current and/or projected fiscal status?”
Janney Montgomery Scott answer: “No negative budgetary impact, as pledged dollars are not accounted for in current budgets.”
Of course the dollars were not in the current budgets - the project has yet to be built. But just maybe the Administration should have shared its Real Estate Tax revenue forecasts with the consultant.
In three short years (school year 10-11) the Administration forecasts annual RE tax revenues to grow by $8,296,391. A 17% increase. The annual +/- $400,000 give away by the school district, would certainly help offset some of the planned increases they have in store for the rest of us.
Looking at the question again – the District artfully asked about “undue stress on the Taxing Bodies’” not the taxpayers.
The Administration figures it can just raise the millage on everyone else. No biggee!
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