Trib: Laurels & Lances

Laurel: To Mt. Lebanon commissioners. At a time when most taxpayers are happy if taxes just don't go up and officials crow about merely holding that line, a tax decrease is worth celebrating. So kudos to Mt. Lebanon, where officials found ways to save enough on debt payments and health insurance to turn a proposed 0.48-mill tax hike into a 0.13-mill tax cut for 2011. Mt. Lebanon property owners' savings won't be big -- $26 on a house assessed at $200,000 -- but will be enough to make folks living elsewhere envious.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_714111.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

School Board’s 10.5-Percent Tax Increase Earns Another “Lancing”

Today, Mt. Lebanon got “lanced” again by the Tribune-Review:

Lance: To Mt. Lebanon. Its school board approved a staggering 10.5 percent increase in taxes this week. That's to pay for a poorly executed high school renovation project and to cover teacher pensions. And, apparently, there's a little something in there for a new contract with teachers, now being negotiated. The school tax bill on a $200,000 home will soar to more than $5,300 a year. And that great sucking you're soon to hear won't be the straw at the bottom of an empty cold coffee.

Over on his blog, School Board Director James Fraasch comments on the situation:

I can't say I disagree with the lances. It's unfortunate that for years this Board has known the day would come when taxes would skyrocket up in order to pay for the high school. Since the first day I sat down on this Board, I asked how we were planning to pay for it. The answer became so clear on Monday night. We decided to increase taxes to pay for 100% of the cost of the first set of bonds for the project.

Mr. Fraasch’s post is worth reading. He shows that the true problem isn’t the tax increase so much as the culture that created it, a culture that threatens to make Mt. Lebanon uncompetitive.

Making people pay more for what they can get elsewhere is not the recipe for community growth. It’s the recipe for decline.

School Board Gets Lanced (Again)

Another lance in today's Pittsburgh-Tribune Review:

Lance: To the Mt. Lebanon School Board. It's raising property taxes nearly 11 percent to cover the cost of a high school renovation project. Eleven percent. In one year. (And who knows to what kind of tax hike this year's negotiations on a new teachers contract will lead.) What a way to shaft residents -- raise taxes by such a large amount that it makes fleeing (by selling one's house) virtually impossible. In these economic times, such a tax hike is a travesty. Heads are not simply screwed on wrong in Mt. Lebanon; its "leaders" have stripped the threads.

Previous lances can be found here and here.

Read more: www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_677707.html

School Board Gets "Lanced" By The Tribune-Review

The following "lance" was mentioned in today's Tribune-Review:

Lance: To the Mt. Lebanon School Board. In capping a contentious high school renovation project at $113.3 million, it beat the $115 million threshold that would have automatically triggered a public referendum. Given that this project could, according to one school director, see school taxes rise by more than 45 percent by 2014, the board firmly planted its thumb to its nose and waggled its fingers furiously at the public who will foot the bill.

Read more: Laurels and Lances - Friday, January 22, 2010