Thursday, March 29, 2012

P-G: Mt. Lebanon fire company earns honors


The Mt. Lebanon Fire Department has been honored by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, one of six fire departments in the U.S. and Canada to receive the award this year.

Chief Nicholas Sohyda said accreditation shows that the department is effectively using public funds to provide top-notch service and it's an honor few combination full-time and volunteer fire departments enjoy. There are 160 departments that hold the accreditation.

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The Almanac: Mt. Lebanon eyes staff cuts

Mt. Lebanon community members gathered in the Jefferson Middle School auditorium March 26 to hear an overview of the school board's draft 2012-2013 budget, as well as discussion of proposed cuts aimed at closing a $2 million budget gap.

The shortfall is largely the result of reductions in state funding, as well as rising pension and healthcare costs. The board currently targets a 0.5 mill tax increase, $700,000 in budget cuts and a $250,000 transfer from its excess fund balance to make up the difference.

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P-G: Balanced budget out of reach in Mt. Lebanon

Mt. Lebanon school board members resumed talks Monday night about the district's $2 million shortfall in the proposed 2012-13 spending plan and discussed ways to bring money into the district to prevent losing staff close to the classroom.

Members could reach deeper into a 38-item list of possible cuts to avoid cuts such as counselors and the part-time community service coordinator, Judith Kolko.

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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The Almanac: Motorists to see more stop signs in Mt. Lebanon

Residents and motorists in Mt. Lebanon will see additional stop signs throughout the area.

At the March 13 commissioners meeting, commissioners unanimously voted to install stop signs on Jonquil Place at the intersection with Audubon Avenue, at the intersection of Coolidge Avenue and Shady Drive West and the intersection of Chalmers Place and Parkview Drive. Commissioners tabled the consideration of a stop sign replacing the yield sign at the intersection of Inglewood Drive and Beadling Road.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Trib: Mt. Lebanon finds its next football coach in Melnyk

For the past dozen years, Mike Melnyk brought his Manheim Township football team to Pitt's seven-on-seven passing camp so his Blue Streaks to compete against Western Pennsylvania's top programs.

Melnyk wanted to find out what it was like to coach against WPIAL perennial powers during the season, and he will get that opportunity this fall as the new football coach at traditional power Mt. Lebanon. His hiring was unanimously approved Monday night by the school district's school board.

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Friday, March 23, 2012

Trib: Laurels & Lances

On the "Watch List":

• The Mt. Lebanon School Board. It's going to spend more than $41,000 on a study to predict the success of a prospective $30 million capital fundraising campaign. Good grief. We'll bet most residents of already tax-strapped Mt. Lebanon don't appreciate the implications of picking their pockets one way to see how amenable they might be to having their pockets picked another way.

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

P-G: Personal reading devices create nary a whisper in Mt. Lebanon schools

In Mt. Lebanon schools, children can be seen and not heard.

But it's not because they're keeping quiet. Every kindergartner and first-grader in the district's seven elementary schools is now using a WhisperPhone, an acoustic, self-amplifying device to better hear themselves when reading aloud in the classroom.

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P-G: Staff cuts possible in Mt. Lebanon schools

Mt. Lebanon School District moved closer to closing a nearly $2 million gap in the 2012-13 budget when it released a 38-item concept list Tuesday that includes nine furloughs among the possible cuts.

Though they're near the bottom of the list, which is organized by priority, the district could part with a high school teacher -- by furlough or attrition -- one full-time high school library clerk, six part-time library clerks and a community service coordinator.

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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Allegheny Institute examines Mt. Lebanon School District's fiscal predicament

The Allegheny Institute released a new policy brief today. The subject? The fiscal woes of the Mt. Lebanon School District: School District Seeks Answers.

Since the brief looks into a subject both important and interesting to Mt. Lebanon residents, I'm going to reprint it below (courtesy Allegheny Institute).

Allegheny Institute for Public Policy

March 21, 2012
Policy Brief: Volume 12, Number 16


School District Seeks Answers

(March 21, 2012) — Cut personnel, raise taxes, or dip into the savings account. Those are the choices facing one of the largest school districts in Allegheny County. As the 2012-13 fiscal year approaches, Mt. Lebanon is grappling with the question of how to deal with a $2 million deficit. The deficit could increase to $3 million depending on the ruling on a grievance filed by teachers regarding retroactive benefits for substitutes who become full time teachers.

With the level of state education funding stalled, the past few years of rapidly rising costs have caught up with the District – a scenario that is likely developing in many districts. In Mt. Lebanon the trends in several key measures have definitely been unfavorable over the last ten years. Enrollment is down while employee benefits and property tax levies are up substantially.

Based on the audited financial report available on the District’s website, from 2002 through 2011 enrollment fell from 5,616 to 5,268 (-6%). Over the same period full-time equivalent employee headcount rose 3.5 percent. The categories of supervisory and student services personnel were both up 16 percent while instruction and support/administration are up 2.5 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.

Astonishingly, the audited data show fringe benefits have jumped from $6.4 million to $13.9 million (114%) during the 2002-11 period, pushing the ratio of fringe benefits to salaries in the District from 20 percent to 34 percent in 2011. If the $1 million grievance settlement is awarded the fringe benefits to salaries ratio will almost certainly rise even further. Total outlays climbed 42 percent over the period, boosting per pupil expenditures by 52 percent. Note that from 2006 to 2011, SAT scores were flat, although still well above state and national averages.

Will the District raise property taxes? Been there and done that. Notwithstanding the County assessment freeze that was touted as a way to curb property tax increases, audited financial data show that after reducing the property tax rate from 20.76 mills to 18.12 in the 2002-03 year, Mt. Lebanon school tax millage rate was raised every fiscal year since except for 2007-08 and 2011-12. For 2011-12 the tax rate is set at 26.63 mills, almost 50 percent higher than the 2002-03 rate. By comparison, the average Allegheny County school district rate for this year is just over 23 mills according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Since there was no reassessment during the period, the change in the adjusted net property tax levy – from $38.8 million in 2002 to $55.8 million in 2011 – is largely accounted for by the millage change. Meanwhile, the Municipality of Mt. Lebanon (which is geographically the same as the School District) raised its millage and the County rate was left unchanged. Thus, the property taxes paid to the District by Mt. Lebanon property owners climbed much faster than the taxes paid to the municipality or County.

To cover a $3 million shortfall, the Mt. Lebanon Board would have to raise millage by 5.4 percent on current assessed valuations, well above what is allowed by the Act 1 index. However, the reassessment coming in 2013 makes the situation more complicated. Due to the reassessment, the total assessed valuations in the District are expected to rise by 30 percent next year. Thus, the District must roll back the millage rate to hold the total tax collections at the increase allowed by Act 1 index – either 1.4 percent or 1.7 percent, depending on which index the Department of Education determines the District will use to comply with Act 1. Nothing precludes the District from raising taxes up to that index and it can seek an exception from the Department of Education to raise the millage higher. It can also place a referendum on the ballot asking voters to approve a larger rate hike. In light of all the tax increases in recent years, raising the millage any amount is highly questionable, but to ask for 5 percent higher taxes by a filing for an exception or using a referendum could ignite a firestorm of protests, especially from owners whose property assessments go up by well over the 30 percent average increase in the District.

Clearly the District is at a point of having to make some hard decisions, a situation similar to the ones facing other schools and local governments as they seek to balance the interests of taxpayers, students, and employees. That’s the Board’s job. The present situation should not come as a surprise. We noted in a Policy Brief over two years ago (Volume 10, Number 9): fringe benefits and debt service were projected to rise in a budget forecast, and taxes would rise as well. The forecast projected that state assistance would rise to more than $21 million by 2015: the preliminary budget for 2012-13 anticipates $14 million in state sources. That means state appropriations to the District would have to rise 50 percent in two years to meet the forecast from two years ago. That is quite unlikely given the state’s fiscal situation. It is possible some additional funding will be coming with much of that going to the school employees’ pension fund.

The District is hiring a consultant to look for a way to raise revenue other than from taxes. The Board might want to work with other districts to change the retirement system to a defined contribution system for new hires or unvested employees. Cutting costs should be a top priority. There is always a way to find cost reductions if one looks hard enough. Granted, union contracts and state laws can make that difficult in some areas, but if a 4 percent spending reduction cannot be found, then the Board is not trying very hard.


Jake Haulk, Ph.D., President
Eric Montarti, Senior Policy Analyst

Policy Briefs may be reprinted as long as proper attribution is given. For more information about this and other topics, please visit our website: www.alleghenyinstitute.org

If you wish to support our efforts please consider becoming a donor to the Allegheny Institute. The Allegheny Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and all contributions are tax deductible. Please mail your contribution to:

The Allegheny Institute
305 Mt. Lebanon Boulevard
Suite 208
Pittsburgh, PA15234

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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

P-G: Mt. Lebanon district to get fundraising study on new high school

Mt. Lebanon school directors voted unanimously Monday night to pay $41,000 for a professional analysis that will attempt to predict the success of a $30 million fundraising campaign for a new high school.

Some members were unsure as of last week whether they would support the action because they worried it would be a significant investment of money or time, among other concerns. Two members hesitated before casting votes favoring the study.

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P-G: Mt. Lebanon school board continues to wrestle with $2 million budget gap

Still undecided on how they will close a nearly $2 million gap, Mt. Lebanon school board directors will hold further talks on the 2012-13 budget later this month.

The board has to decide whether it will vote to increase the property tax rate, dip into reserve funds or cut programs -- and staff -- by its April 16 voting meeting. Most members have called for a combination of two or more of those avenues.

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Trib: Mt. Lebanon man deemed sexual predator by Fayette judge

A Mt. Lebanon man who pleaded no contest to allegations he kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old Fayette County girl has been deemed a sexually violent predator.

Fayette County Common Pleas Judge Steve Leskinen on Monday imposed the designation on Richard M. Sabatasse, 27, after hearing from Herbert E. Hays, a member of the Pennsylvania Sexually Violent Offenders Assessment Board.

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Trib: Mt. Lebanon man sent to prison for bank robberies

A Mt. Lebanon man convicted of robbing nearly a dozen banks in Florida several years ago was sentenced today to more than a dozen years in prison after pleading guilty to a series of recent heists in Oakdale, West Virginia and Maryland, according to federal prosecutors in Wheeling.

Jeremy T. Dugan, 32, was on supervised release for the Florida holdups when the latest robbery spree began. Dugan admitted to committing robberies Aug. 31 at First Commonwealth Bank in Oakdale; Sept. 2 at a federal credit union in Elm Grove, W.Va.; and Sept. 26 at a bank in Perryville, Md.

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Monday, March 19, 2012

Trib: Mt. Lebanon police seek man accused of attempted luring

Mt. Lebanon Police are searching for a man driving a pickup truck who is accused of trying to lure a 12-year-old girl into his vehicle this afternoon.

The girl was walking on Pinewood Drive near Maplewood Drive at 4:20 p.m. when the white, older-model pickup with round headlights approached, Mt. Lebanon police Lt. Aaron Lauth said.

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P-G: Loss ends remarkable streak for Mt. Lebanon girls basketball team

When Mt. Lebanon High's girls basketball team lost to Oakland Catholic in the quarterfinals of the PIAA Class AAAA girls basketball tournament, it ended a remarkable five-yer era for the Blue Devils and their coach, Dori Oldaker.

In four previous seasons, Mt. Lebanon had played in the Class AAAA state championship game, winning the title in the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons against three different opponents. Only a 56-49 loss to Central Dauphin in the 2008 Class AAAA state championship spoiled a remarkable run for the Blue Devils.

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P-G: Mt. Lebanon hockey season ends with tough loss

Mt. Lebanon played like a PIHL Penguins Cup-caliber contender all season. In the deep and relatively balanced-at-the-top Class AAA, however, the semifinals have room for only four of what appeared to be six viable contenders.

The Blue Devils lost a tough quarterfinal game, 4-3, to Peters Township Wednesday night at the Mt. Lebanon Recreation Center. The No. 4 seed Blue Devils led, 3-2, with five minutes to play before Patrick Hannan scored twice late to give the No. 5 Indians (16-5-3) the victory.

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Sunday, March 18, 2012

The Almanac: Mt. Lebanon man receives Carnegie Science Award

Mt. Lebanon resident Nick Kuhn was recently awarded the Carnegie Science Award in the start-up entrepreneur category for his position as president and chief business officer at ALung Technologies, which is based on the South Side of Pittsburgh.

According to a press release from the Carnegie Science Award, Kuhn was selected because of the conversion of medical science into "a viable product by developing the Hemolung System.

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Friday, March 16, 2012

Trib: Oakland Catholic knocks off defending champion Mt. Lebanon

One of the great runs in state girls basketball is over. Another of the area's great programs is enjoying its biggest win in years.

Three-time defending PIAA Class AAAA champion Mt. Lebanon saw its reign come to an end Friday night in a sloppy, 37-32 state quarterfinal loss to resilient Oakland Catholic at Chartiers Valley.

It marked quite the turnaround for the Eagles (27-2), who just two weeks earlier lost to the Blue Devils (25-4) in the WPIAL title game. Now, they're two wins away from the program's first state title since 2005 -- Tuesday's semifinal opponent Governor Mifflin is the next hurdle to cross on that quest.

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Trib: Apartment owners, Catholic diocese dispute Mt. Lebanon stormwater charges

Mt. Lebanon's stormwater fee, which took effect last summer, is facing legal challenges from the owners of an apartment building and the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

The owners of the Bower Hill III apartments, on Bower Hill Road, are appealing the fee, which is intended to pay for repairing and expanding the storm sewer system by charging property owners for the runoff they create, on the grounds that the system is flawed. St. Bernard Parish on Washington Road still has not paid, after officials from the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh had argued that the church's property is exempt from taxation.

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Thursday, March 15, 2012

P-G: Mt. Lebanon band to march at Derby parade

Mt. Lebanon High School Blue Devil band will march in front of what planners expect will be hundreds of thousands of spectators in the Kentucky Derby Festival Pegasus Parade in Louisville, Ky., on May 3.

Band director Louise Marino said the band has performed at the St. Patrick's Day parades in New York and Chicago and at various bowl games, but this trip marks the band's first appearance at the Derby festival and its parade.

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Trib: Mt. Lebanon girls defeat Baldwin for third time

The third meeting between Mt. Lebanon and Baldwin wasn't a blowout like the first two, but the result was the same, as the Blue Devils earned a victory, 45-32.

Three-time defending state champion Mt. Lebanon, owner of a pair wins by 30 points or more over Section 4 rival Baldwin, outscored the Highlanders, 16-7, in the final quarter to secure a PIAA Class AAAA second-round win Tuesday evening at Palumbo Center.

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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Commissioner Kelly Fraasch to meet with constituents this Saturday

Want to meet with a Mt. Lebanon Commissioner to talk about the Mt. Lebanon issues on your mind? Then this Saturday is your lucky day! Commissioner Kelly Fraasch is setting aside time to meet with you. Just schedule an appointment and you’re all set.

She wrote to us with the details:

I would like to put out in public that I am going to host a Commissioner Day on Saturday, March 17, 2012.

Obviously my opinions and ideas that are shared are mine and mine alone.

I have slots for 30 minutes running from 7:30am-11:00am. I already have 11:30 scheduled.

7:30-8:00
8:00-8:30
8:30-9:00
9:00-9:30
9:30-10:00
10:00-10:30
10:30-11:00
11:00-11:30
11:30 SCHEDULED

I will be hosting at Orbis Caffe (former Aldo’s) on Washington Road.

I need to have the appointments pre-scheduled via email kelly@kellyfraasch.com.

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Saturday, March 10, 2012

What can Mt. Lebanon learn from school superintendents in Connecticut?

Via the Dangerously Irrelevant blog, I learned that Connecticut's school superintendents (CAPSS) have put forth a controversial plan to reform their public school system. From the plan’s introduction:
The public school system is not meeting the expectation that all children will learn what they need to know ... to lead decent and productive lives. The major reason for this is that today’s public schools are not designed to enable universal student success. Instead, they are still based on the mid-19th-century expectation of supplying universal access.... CAPSS and its members are excited about the opportunity to help transform the public school system to ensure that it better meets the needs of children well into the 21st century.
Unlike many plans to “fix” public education that we hear about in Mt. Lebanon, this one seems different in two ways. First, its authors seem unafraid to go after real problems, even if solving those problems is likely to shake up the current public education system and its politically powerful beneficiaries. Second, the plan embraces some things that our local school leaders suggest we ought to fear.

School choice, for example. The Connecticut superintendents see choice not as something to be feared but as something essential to offering a better education. They want families within a school district to have more of it, not less:
Needed Action: Allow students and their parents to choose from a menu of options, including magnet schools, charter schools, and vocational-technical schools as well as different schedules and curriculums, all within the jurisdiction of the local district.
And they challenge a lot of other educational sacred cows, too. Here’s how they contrast the status quo with their proposed recommendations:


Note that final row. In Connecticut, they seem to understand that modern information and computing technologies are not just improving but transforming the ways that learning happens. In the 21st century, education is becoming less about moving students to and from a centralized learning factory and more about letting students learn anytime, anywhere. (And, if you think a fancy new high school is an important part of meeting the challenges of our educational tomorrow, read the report. Bricks and mortar are hardly mentioned.)

If you’re at all interested in public education, the full report is worth reading. It’s certainly got its flaws – among them the apparent need to engage readers with contrived student vignettes and an over-abundance of warm-and-fuzzy photographs – but overall it’s a refreshingly honest look at the problems with public education in many of our United States.

And it offers one more thing: a sign that there are some people in public education who are willing to tackle those problems head on. In Connecticut, at least.

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Thursday, March 08, 2012

P-G: Mt. Lebanon man granted new trial pleads to 3rd-degree murder

A Mt. Lebanon man who last month earned a new trial on a second-degree murder conviction this morning pleaded guilty to third-degree murder.

As part of the plea agreement, Jared Lischner, 30, was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison, plus an additional 10 years on probation.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning said he believed the new sentence is commensurate with Mr. Lischner's role in the crime.

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P-G: Mt. Lebanon likely to hire Manheim Towship coach

It looks like Mt. Lebanon High School will go to the eastern side of the state for its new football coach.

Mike Melnyk, the head coach at Manheim Township High School, has emerged as the leading candidate for the job and is expected to be hired at a school board meeting later this month. The Mt. Lebanon job opened when Chris Haering resigned to become an assistant coach at Pitt.

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Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Trib: Mt. Lebanon commissioner had history of helping community

Edward Daly was a two-term Mt. Lebanon commissioner in the 1980s and '90s who was committed to improving the quality of life for the people he represented.

As a member of the board of the Medical Rescue of Mt. Lebanon, Mr. Daly was able to apply his knack for numbers to help coordinate funding for the organization's mission of providing non-emergency medical transportation between homes and medical facilities.

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Monday, March 05, 2012

Are the New Assessments Fair?

This article is part of a series examining how Mt. Lebanon is likely to be affected by the recent county-wide reassessment. For other articles in the series, see Blog-Lebo’s Reassessment Series. —Tom

In our previous article, Reality-Checking the Reassessments: Part 2, we compared both old and new assessments to sales prices for homes sold recently in Mt. Lebanon. Our goal was to see whether the new assessments were closer to the market reality than the old. And, on the whole, they were.

But we noticed a concerning trend: Less-expensive properties were more likely to be assessed above their market prices, especially in comparison to more-expensive properties, which were more likely to be assessed below their sales prices. The following plot shows the trend, relating the degree of “over” or “under” assessment to a home’s selling price.



In our sample of recently sold homes in Mt. Lebanon, there is a clear regressive trend to the new assessments. On the x-axis we have the actual sales prices of homes sold in 2010 and 2011. On the y-axis we have the difference between the newly assessed values for those homes and their sales prices. Homes appearing above $0 on the y-axis were assessed at above their sales prices; those appearing below $0 were assessed below their sales prices. As properties become more valuable, they become more likely to be assessed at below-market values.

At a glance, it sure appears that there is some unfairness to these new assessments.

What’s “unfair”?

Before going further, I’m going to be clear about what I mean by unfair. I’m not interested in discussing, at least for now, whether the idea of property taxes is fair. Rather, I’m interested in determining whether (or not) the assessments allocate to the owner of each property a slice of the community’s overall property-tax burden that is proportionate to that property’s fair-market value, relative to that of the entire community. For example, if you own property that is truly worth 0.034% of Mt. Lebanon’s total fair-market property value, you ought to pay 0.034% of Mt. Lebanon’s total property taxes. If an assessment scheme causes you pay more, the scheme is unfair to you; if you it causes you to pay less, it’s unfair to everyone else.

By that standard, then, is the new assessment scheme fair? And, in particular, is it fairer than the one it’s supposed to improve upon?

Clumping it

Those are tricky questions. To answer them, we would need to know the true fair-market value of Mt. Lebanon’s properties. And, even with sales data, it’s hard to say what the fair-market value of a home is. If you recently bought a home for $100,000, is that its true fair-market value? Indeed, the sales evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that the home’s true value is $100,000. But, alas, it’s also consistent with the hypothesis that the true value is really $110,000 (and you’re a shrewd negotiator), and also with the hypothesis it’s really $90,000 (and you’re a sucker). They’re all realistic possibilities. Who’s to say which is true?

We can get around this problem by clumping properties together. If we clump, say, 100 properties together, and they had sales prices totalling $10 million, it’s hard to believe that those properties are truly worth substantially more or substantially less than $10 million. That’s because it’s hard to believe that all 100 of the people who bought those properties are suckers. Or all shrewed negotiators. Or all anything else. You’ll have some mix of suckers, shrewed negotiators, and every other sort of buyer and seller in the mix. And together their individual preferences tend to “cancel out” one another, and what we’re left with is the market price.

Now we can return to the problem of measuring the fairness (or unfairness) of the new assessment scheme. If the scheme is fair, we should be able to grab the 1000 least-expensive properties in Mt. Lebanon, clump them together, and add up their actual sales prices to arrive at the clump’s fair-market value. And we can do the same for the 1000 next-most-expensive properties. Then we can see whether their respective tax burdens are proportionate to their respective fair-market values. And then we can repeat the process, right up to the 1000 most-expensive properties in town, to calculate fairness across the home-value spectrum.

Running the assessments in reverse

Which brings us to the next problem. We don’t have actual, recent sales prices for all of Mt. Lebanon’s properties. Not every home was put on the market and sold in the last year or so; only some were, and those are the only homes in our data set. And, among those homes, there are some weird transactions like foreclosures and sheriff’s sales, which probably don’t fully reflect market prices. For Mt. Lebanon, we would expect this weirdness to be small, so I’m not going to worry about it further. But we still have to figure out the market prices of homes that haven’t sold recently.

To figure out those prices, we’re going to mine our limited sales data for all it’s worth. Here’s the idea. If we have a clump of homes assessed at about $100,000 each, we’ll comb our sales data for homes similarly assessed at about $100,000 and see how much they sold for on the market. Then we’ll ascribe similar sales prices to the homes in the clump we’re trying to price. While this method would be unreliable for individual homes, we’re working with clumps of a thousand homes, over which we would expect errors to mostly cancel out. Still, there’s a reasonable chance that recently sold homes are somehow different from Mt. Lebanon properties in general, so we ought to take our extrapolations with a grain of salt.

The fairness comparisons

That said, after we divide Mt. Lebanon into clumps, estimate their fair-market values, and then compute their fair-share tax obligations, the results aren’t subtle. The new assessments seem notably more unfair than the old. You’d have to take them with a lot of salt before thinking everything was in fact peachy.

The following plot shows how we predict the new and old assessments to play out in terms of property taxes, distributed across the community’s properties by fair-market value. There’s a lot going on, so take a look, then meet up with me after the plot for some explanation.


(Click for larger version)


Running horizontally we have home prices, starting at a little below $100,000 and ending a little beyond $400,000. This price range covers the bulk of Mt. Lebanon homes. Running vertically we have the degree to which properties are predicted to be overtaxed because of inequities in the assessment scheme.

The lines on the plot trace out what we might call the “tax-fairness curves” of the different assessment schemes. The curve for a perfectly fair scheme would be a flat line at 0%, meaning that, across the pricing spectrum, properties would generally be taxed in equal proportion to their fair-market values. As you can see, however, the curves on the plot are far from flat, and some of them stray into overtaxed-by-10-percent territory.

For now, ignore the dotted lines and focus on the solid lines. The solid red line represents the tax fairness of the old assessment scheme. To my eye it looks pretty reasonable, generally within 2.5% of perfectly fair across the value spectrum, which is better than I would have expected.

Now look at the solid blue line. That’s the new assessment scheme. To use a technical phrase, it’s all over the place. Low-valued properties are getting overtaxed by up to 10%, and higher-valued properties are correspondingly undertaxed. That’s not good.

Now back to those dotted lines. I used two separate statistical models to predict market prices from assessed values. The first is more constrained and therefore “smoother” in its predictions. It’s represented by the solid lines. The other is less constrained and more “wiggly” (another technical term). It’s represented by the dotted lines. So go back and look at those dotted lines. While they look a bit different, their overall pattern is the same as before: the new assessments (blue) are more unfair than the old (red).

Which is pretty much the opposite of what everyone expected of the new assessments.

So it’s not looking good for the new assessments. If they were supposed to fix inequities of the old assessments, they’re not doing a great job at it, at least not for Mt. Lebanon.

As usual, comments are open. This is a complex subject, so feel free to ask questions and share your thoughts. All we ask is that you abide by our real-names policy: When you offer a comment, sign it with your real first and last name. (Otherwise, we won’t be able to post it.)

Blog-Lebo would like to thank the University Center for Social and Urban Research for making available their ever-useful data set of recent Allegheny County residential-property sales, without which this analysis would not have been practical. Any errors in this analysis are Blog-Lebo’s, not theirs.

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Sunday, March 04, 2012

P-G: Mt. Lebanon girls take Quad A title

It was a familiar sight after tonight's WPIAL Class AAAA girls basketball title game. Mt. Lebanon was holding the championship trophy.

Mt. Lebanon won its third title in four years with a 58-49 victory against Oakland Catholic at Duquesne University's Palumbo Center. The Blue Devils scored the final nine points of the game to pull out the win.

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Thursday, March 01, 2012

Obituary: Edward J. Daly, Jr, Former Mt. Lebanon Commissioner


Edward J. Daly, a former 5th Ward Commissioner, passed away on Tuesday, February 28. His obituary, which highlights his many community and church activities as a longtime Mt. Lebanon resident, can be viewed here.

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P-G: Mt. Lebanon wipes up the floor with its opponents

Mark this one down as one of the more unusual drills in all of basketball.

The Mt. Lebanon girls' basketball team does "sprints" while pushing towels along the gym floor.

Coach Dori Oldaker calls this a "clean the floor" drill. Players put their hands on the towel and push from baseline to baseline as they feel the burn through their legs and knees. It's not easy or fun, and the athletes always try to get out of it.

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Patch: Mt. Lebanon Beats USC in WPIAL Semifinals

Mt. Lebanon defeated the Upper St. Clair High School girls basketball team in the WPIAL semifinals Tuesday night, 49-33.

"We dug ourselves into a hole the first half," said Ernie Koontz, Upper St. Clair's head coach.

USC found themselves down 14-26 after the first half, but came back in the third quarter. The score at the end of the third was 31-33.

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Patch: Mt. Lebanon Administrator Named New USC Principal

Superintendent Patrick O'Toole announced the hiring Monday night of Patrick McClintock-Comeaux as the new Baker Elementary principal.

McClintock-Comeaux is currently the principal of Stephen C. Foster Elementary School in the Mt. Lebanon School District.

He is an Upper St. Clair High School graduate and was a teacher and curriculum leader in the Upper St. Clair School District from 1995 to 2001.

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