posted by Joe Polk at 1:32 AM /
Mt. Lebanon school board unanimously approved a resolution Monday directing Superintendent Timothy Steinhauer to prepare a final budget for 2011-12 with a millage increase that does not exceed 1.4 percent of the current year's rate of 26.63, or 0.37 mills, district spokeswoman Cissy Bowman said.
The resolution comes a year after the board passed a 10.5 percent property tax increase due to increased pension responsibilities and a bond issued for the planned $113.2 million high school.
Also Monday, finance director Janice Klein said the Moody's rating agency recently gave the school district an Aa1 credit rating. The rating reflects that the agency believes the district's financial obligations, including the $69 million bond issued last year for the high school project, are of high quality and subject to very low credit risk
Read the full article:
The resolution comes a year after the board passed a 10.5 percent property tax increase due to increased pension responsibilities and a bond issued for the planned $113.2 million high school.
Also Monday, finance director Janice Klein said the Moody's rating agency recently gave the school district an Aa1 credit rating. The rating reflects that the agency believes the district's financial obligations, including the $69 million bond issued last year for the high school project, are of high quality and subject to very low credit risk
Read the full article:
- www.post-gazette.com/pg/11020/1119366-55.stm (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Labels: budget, credit rating, moody's, school board, school district
9 Comments:
January 4, Forecast of Estimated Budgeted Expenditures through forecasted year 2015-2016 is available on the District website.
A few quick observations ...
First - Thanks to Dr. Steinhauer for seeing this forecast was timely posted.
Current Year EXPENSES: Projected to be down $1.6MM this year over the original budget, or about 2%.
Current Year REVENUES: Projected to be down $0.9MM this year over the original budget, or just over 1%.
Current Year NET: The budget is estimated to be improved between six and seven hundred thousand dollars in the current year.
ESTIMATED MILLAGE in five years (2015-2016): 32.26 mills
CURRENT MILLAGE (2010-2011): 26.63 mills
ESTIMATED INCREASE over 5 years: 5.63 mills or 21.1%
NOTEWORTHY: The ESTIMATED forecast shows about $12MM in expenses flat or decreasing between now and 2015-2016.
The decreases total $185,000 and are attributed to savings from the new High School in: Repair & Maintenance, Supplies and Utilities.
Should the remaining "flat" expenses actually increase say -- 13% -- over the next 5 years, that will require an additional .48 mills, making the 2015-2016 millage 32.74 mills.
The cost containment groups may contribute expense reductions over this period, but until we have real savings opportuinities identified and implemented, Dr. Steinhauer should forecast these expenses to change over the next few years based on today's best available information -- and then the savings his teams produce would be shown as either hard savings or cost avoidance. Both are important.
Remember how Tom had to help me with this last year? Well, I am not doing much better this year. Why is the Real Estate Tax the same all the way across?
Elaine Gillen
Elaine,
This Budget is as phony as a $3.00 bill. The Real Estate Taxes are held flat on the Real Estate Tax line but the Total Revenues in 2015-2016 are $85,677,407 compared to Total Expenditures of $97,367,870. This means $11,690,463 or 5.39 mills is understated in the Total Revenues. Thus, the millage increases by 5.39 mills to 37.65 mills in 2015-2016, versus 26.63 mills in 2010-2011 for a 58.62% millage increase instead of the 21.1% millage increase projected.
This is the same Blatant Sophistry that Klein committed last January when she submitted an unbalanced Revenue and Expense Budget to the Audit and Finance Committee in January showing a 37% increase in millage and then she submitted a February Budget to the Board showing a 45% millage increase.
The Budget shown should have 5.39 more mills in 2015-2016 than this Budget shows. Shame on Jan Klein; her professional reputation is deteriorating.
It is a shame the Superintendent allowed this Budget to be posted on the website in the current form. He must be desperate to get the Commission to pass the High School Project!
John Ewing
Mea Culpa!
The correct percentage millage increase should be 41.37% not 58.63% in my previous post. This does not change my conclusions about the phony Budget.
John Ewing
Thanks for the correction, John, but somehow a millage increase of 41.37% doesn't make me feel better.
James Fraasch was head of the Audit and Finance Committee, but he resigned December 15. This forecast is dated 1/4/2011. Who replaced him? The next meeting isn't until the end of February.
Elaine Gillen
Slow down guys -- yes, the budget presentation is TOTALLY confusing -- but I don't think the millage required to balance is wrong.
The forecasted budget does show being out-of-balance (Revenues vs. Expenses).
However, in some other back-of-an-envelope calculation the District has determined the total millage required to balance the budget in 2015-2016 to be: 32.26. This is a 5.63 mill increase from where we are today.
There is absolutely no reason why the District cannot produce a budget that does not require the ability to perform a Mathematical Proof or hold an advanced degree in Three-Card-Monte -- it is just the path they choose -- one of my greatest disappointments in the District.
Another quick observation ...
Per Pupil Cost 2002-2003: $9,916
Per Pupil Cost 2015-2016: $18,899 (ESTIMATED)
Increase in PerPupil Cost: 90.6%
We have a darn good mission at MTLSD: To Provide the Best Education Possible for Each and Every Student.
With that being said, I often feel the District looses sight of the context embodied by the original crafters of our mission: this mission means that the Mt. Lebanon School District will provide the best education possible given local resources, and state and federal constraints.
Financially, few MTL households will be 90% ahead of where they were in 2002 when 2015 arrives.
We need to be assured every dollar taxed is necessary to advance the Mission. In the end there are only two alternatives: A) The Tax dollars advance the Mission, or B) they do not.
Bill M.
We have both watched the large surpluses drop to the Funds Balance every year. We know what the District may calculate is a fairy tale.
Nobody knows what the State will do to balance the Mt. Lebanon Budget. The State has to balance their own budget before they send more money to Mt. Lebanon.
Until we know the details from the State, I will stick by the millage required to balance our Expenditure estimates; that is a 41% millage increase in spite of what the District calculated.
It is time to put forward an honest budget – something we haven’t seen for a long time.
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