posted by Joe Polk at 4:40 PM /
The title of this blog post is also the title of a 7 page document that I received today from School Board member James Fraasch. In it, he discusses the high school renovation project and the upcoming Act 34 (which sets the maximum project cost) vote on Monday, January 18.
In his document, James discusses the projected real estate tax increase of up to 50% in the next five years if the project proceeds as it currently stands. He also reviews our millage rate and overall project costs to comparable schools in our area.
The full document can be viewed at: www.scribd.com/doc/25233272/MTLSDWhitePaperV3.
UPDATE 2010-01-14 18:30 (by Tom): For those readers who have trouble with Scribd-hosted documents, I have placed another copy of Mr. Fraasch's report on Google Documents: "Your School, Your Taxes, Your Community and Your Child's Education".
In his document, James discusses the projected real estate tax increase of up to 50% in the next five years if the project proceeds as it currently stands. He also reviews our millage rate and overall project costs to comparable schools in our area.
The full document can be viewed at: www.scribd.com/doc/25233272/MTLSDWhitePaperV3.
UPDATE 2010-01-14 18:30 (by Tom): For those readers who have trouble with Scribd-hosted documents, I have placed another copy of Mr. Fraasch's report on Google Documents: "Your School, Your Taxes, Your Community and Your Child's Education".
Labels: high school renovation, james fraasch, school board
8 Comments:
James Fraasch's letter says the school board never voted on the high school project cost. He said that two Board Members, the Superintendent, and the Master Design Team set the cost. He is clearly pointing to Dan Remely, Elaine Cappucci, Carol Walton, and the Teachers’ Union President.
Carol Walton signed the teachers Contract Extension of 2004 under unusual circumstances. Under the School Code the board president is required to sign the teachers contract. Board President, Ron Hoffman negotiated and signed the Tentative Agreement on August 31, 2004. The Board voted on the Contract Extension on September 2, 2004. Carol Walton signed the Teachers’ Union Contract Extension as Board President but Carol wasn’t elected President until the reorganization meeting on the first Monday of December 2004 affirming negotiations were not completed for at least three months after the Board voted.
Walton’s signature on the Contract extension as President raises a great many questions, not the least of which is Walton responsible for the 14% tax hike we are getting this year?
For heaven's sake John, Carol is gone and is not coming back! Get over it.
Can someone please explain to me why James Fraasch (and Dan Miller....a Democract of all people) seem to be the only canaries in the coal mine here regarding the precarious nature of the municipal and school district finances? Where are the other "Republicans" on the school board? Do they not stand for fiscal discipline? Also, where are ANY Republicans on the municipal commission? I think there are 3 "registered" Republicans, but none that seem to actually act like Republicans and have any fiscal sense, discipline, or thought. As a Republican, I am embarassed. What a shame.
Is it too late to bring back Mark Hart and people like Dave Humphreys to the Commission? Or can Mark Hart run for the Commission?
Stuart Getz
Dave,
Walton is on the Master Design Team; she's not gone.
James has done a wonderful job of laying out some of the critically important consequences of this flawed HS endeavor by a Board whose majority have been in denial. James has expressed many of his arguments repeatedly in Board meetings and on his website/blog for more than a year.
The Board majority have operated and orchestrated this HS fiasco wearing blinders and with such vigor, *win at any cost* attitude and closed minds that they cannot claim that the consequences that James defines were unknown to them or unintended. They apparently just don't care !
An area touched on by James that needs further elaboration and much better comprehension is the effect that 45% - 50% increases in school taxes will have on the senior citizen component of the local population, which now approximates 20% of the total population and upwards of 25% of the total number of households. I've submitted comments on this in the past, but let me repeat a potential consequence again :
If seniors (no school age children) evacuate Lebo because of such taxes, and sell their declining valued homes due to such taxes to young couples with children, what will the increased tax compounding effect of these new homeowners with say 2 school children paying school taxes of say only $6,000 be as the average MTLSD cost/student increases from the current $13,500/student to the projected $20,000/student by 2014 ? Who or what will pick up the annual cost difference for that family, amounting to $28,000, in 2014 (ie. $40,000 - $12,000)? Multiply that by 100, 250 or 500 families and you're talking about significant tax increases above and beyond just the projected 45% - 50% level James describes.
Checking the boxes and moving forward is totally unacceptable !
Whoops...made an arithmetical error. The cost difference to be funded by additional tax increases for the hypothetical family would be $34,000 (ie.$40,000 - $6,000), not $28,000 !
Sorry about that...I had a *senior moment*.
No problem, Bill.
At least you don't think
18,000,000 is 8% of 113,000,000!
Regarding the estimated school tax increases in James Fraasch's letter:
Does this include increases that
might be coming in the near future
from the REAL ESTATE ASSESSMENT increase order by Judge Wettick for Allegheny County?
This could happen by 2012.Does
the Mt Lebanon TWP or Mt Lebanon
school board have the power to
limit the percentage amount of
assessment increase on a property
either by a board vote or a voter
referendum?
Monty Kimball
Post a Comment
<< Home