Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Morrisville Hires Interim Police Director

Morrisville hires interim police director

While Morrisville Police Department is without a chief, the borough administration hired an interim police department director to oversee the small force.Frederick Devesa started his temporary gig Tuesday.The police department had been running without a lead administrator since former chief Jack Jones’ contract ended in December. Lt. Thomas Herron has been running the department of nine full-time and four part-time officers in the meantime.
The borough’s insurance company has directed municipal officials to investigate the police department because of lawsuits that have been filed against the police force. The insurer also advised the borough administration to hire an interim police department director, said Tom Bates, borough manager.
Devesa’s salary was unknown Tuesday, but the position was advertised at a rate of between $5,000 and $7,000 a month, with no benefits. Officials said Devesa probably will work full time until the borough hires a new chief, which could take another three to four months.
Earlier this month, Morrisville hired CityBurbs Group, a consulting firm run by Lower Makefield police Chief Ken Coluzzi, to help with filling the interim position and hiring a new chief.
“This (hiring Devesa) is good for the borough,” Bates said. “Hopefully, this will bring stability to the police department.”
Devesa, who lives in Newtown Township, was among 14 applicants.
He has more than three decades of public service, from working as a Newark police officer and detective to serving as assistant attorney general in New Jersey. He served on the New Jersey Superior Court, retiring as the presiding judge in charge of criminal courts in Middlesex County.
As assistant attorney general, Devesa established a police bureau within the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice. His duties included management, coordination and oversight of the statewide police system. He also supervised litigation, investigations and technical assistance for a variety of state law enforcement agencies.
Devesa has supervised the planning and development of many New Jersey law enforcement programs, policies, training courses and legislative initiatives, Bates said.
“After interviewing him, it was obvious he is the right person for the job,” Bates told council in a memo dated Tuesday. “He has worked and excelled in nearly every facet of the criminal justice system.”
Morrisville Mayor Rita Ledger said she has an issue with the process by which Devesa was hired.
She argued that borough council didn’t create the position, nor did it agree to advertise and fill the position.
Councilwoman Debbie Smith said it’s not anything personal against Devesa; rather it’s the way the hiring was handled by the administration.
Smith said she was never informed that the interim position was up for hire, because the last time the issue was brought up to the council, the matter was tabled.
Borough solicitor James Downey said Bates hired Devesa in his capacity as borough manager because he wasn’t hiring a police chief, which would need council approval.
As for the police chief position, applications for that will be accepted from Aug. 1 to Aug. 30. The salary range is $85,000 to $90,000, based on experience. In September, six candidates will be selected. By mid-October, the council will have the top three candidates to interview.
Letters of interest and resumes should be mailed to the CityBurbs Group, 1347 Chase Road, Newtown, PA 18940.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

School Tax Reform to be Discussed in Bristol

School tax reform to be discussed in Bristol

Posted: Sunday, July 28, 2013 7:00 pm | Updated: 11:14 pm, Sun Jul 28, 2013.
Lower Bucks County residents are lining up their questions for Monday’s Property Tax Independence Act community meeting hosted by Rep. John Galloway, D-140.Galloway, who has been a strong proponent of eliminating property taxes, will take the public’s questions and concerns regarding the proposed bipartisan HB76, which calls for the elimination of all school property taxes across the commonwealth, and replacing those taxes with funding from personal income taxes, and the sales and use taxes.The legislation is designed to be tax revenue neutral.
The meeting, which is open to the public, will start at 7 p.m. at Bristol Borough hall, 250 Pond St. The meeting will be televised, so Bristol residents can watch it live from their homes.
The public can submit questions to Galloway’s office until 5:30 p.m. the night of the meeting through his webpage, www.pahouse.com/galloway, facebook, www.facebook.com/RepGalloway, or twitter.com/repjohngalloway.
Berks County resident David Baldinger, who administers a Web-based taxpayer organization, Pennsylvania Taxpayer Cyber Coalition, will speak at the meeting.
He became involved in the effort in 2004 and since then has become one of Pennsylvania’s leading experts on property tax elimination issues. His website is www.ptcc.us, where HB76 is explained in detail.
Morrisville resident Robert Allen, 63, believes the legislation would benefit taxpayers across the commonwealth, especially seniors who live on limited incomes.
He said if property taxes continue to increase, he might be forced to leave his house.
“It’s a weight I constantly have in my head,” Allen said. “I’m not trying to get out of paying my taxes. I’m willing to pay my fair share.”
Bristol school board President Ralph DiGuiseppe III said at last week’s meeting that the idea in theory sounds good, but he’s concerned about how it would affect smaller districts such as Bristol.
“We can all agree that eliminating school taxes is nothing but a huge positive to anyone who owns a house and all taxpayers,” DiGuiseppe said. “The downside that nobody is addressing is what’s going to happen to little Bristol Borough … when you have a district no longer setting the budget or implementing taxes to keep up with special education (costs), teachers’ salaries and (building maintenance.)”
All that is being guaranteed is the coverage of cost of living, he added.
Rep. Jim Cox, R-129, who is the prime sponsor of the bill, wrote in a memo to the House earlier this year that the proposed legislation has been meticulously crafted to ensure the tax swap provision of the plan doesn’t raise more than is already collected by the school property tax mechanism. And that the taxes would be replaced dollar-for-dollar in each district without arcane formulas that redistribute wealth.
“The Property Tax Independence Act’s revenue replacement mechanism moderately broadens the base of the state sales tax to include more services and products at a new 7 percent rate,” Cox wrote in the memo. “Pennsylvania currently has one of the narrowest sales tax bases in the nation and broadening of the base is a powerful key to adequate revenue generation. Life necessities and business-to-business transactions will continue to be exempt from the sales tax.”
While the sales tax would generate almost two-thirds of the proposed legislation’s revenue, the remainder of the funding necessary to replace the school property tax would be generated by a “modest increase” in the state personal income tax from 3.07 percent to 4.34 percent, Cox explained.
He argues that the two taxes would be predictable and provide a stable funding source that would automatically increase revenue in sync with economic growth; unlike the current system that’s not based on economic growth, and is subject to annual tax increases.
Additionally, unlike the property tax that has no relationship to family income, both the sales tax and the personal income tax are directly tied to a person’s ability to pay, Cox said.
If the legislation passes, the plan would be to eliminate the school property tax during a two-year phase-out.
In the first fiscal year after enactment, school property taxes would be frozen at their current level. Then, in the second year the school tax would be completely eliminated except for a small portion that would be retained in each school district to retire the individual district’s outstanding long-term debt, Cox said.
The legislation would eliminate school boards' ability to increase taxes. It wouldn’t impose any new mandates of any kind on school districts.
“The only exception would be a possible local earned income tax or local personal income tax for major projects such as new school construction, and that will be subject to a no-exception taxpayer referendum,” Cox wrote in the memo.
Cox is adamant about the legislation because homeowners of all ages are facing hardship because school property taxes continue to rise at a rate of more than three times that of inflation.
“Polls of real estate professionals have indicated that through the elimination of the school property tax – the greatest portion of the monthly escrow and an amount that in some areas can equal the mortgage payment – Pennsylvania’s real estate market would explode with new buyers,” Cox wrote in his memo.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Morrisville Investigates Police Department

Morrisville investigates police department





Something isn't right in the Morrisville Police Department but, so far, no one is saying what or why.Following an independent audit, which noted discrepancies within the department, and a recommendation from the borough's insurance carrier to conduct an investigation, Morrisville has been handed a 3,200-page report detailing a decade's worth of police department activities.Morrisville's solicitor and its insurance company have seen the report, which was compiled by Newtown Township's Cornerstone Consulting Services. Copies have also been sent to Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler and state Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
And while Heckler said the portion of the report he has seen so far does not appear to discuss activities that would be criminal in nature, Morrisville has hired a special attorney to review the document and make some recommendations that could range from taking no action to firing police personnel, officials said.
The police department is running without a lead administrator, since former Chief Jack Jones retired in December. Lt. Thomas Herron is running the department of nine full-time and four part-time officers in the meantime.
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching Herron or borough Mayor Rita Ledger for comment.
The unnamed special attorney is expected to have results in less than three months. The borough will then act accordingly, officials said.
Additionally, if criminal activity is found, the special attorney would take the findings to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, said Nancy Sherlock, the borough council president.
Cornerstone Consulting Services, an investigative company, took about a year to conclude its findings. That report was turned over to the borough in late April, then was passed on to the borough’s solicitor and insurance company, Sherlock said.
The borough’s upper management has remained tight-lipped about the investigation’s details. Sherlock said that none of the council members, including her, knows what’s in those pages because they want to remain impartial.
“My personal opinion, if it has criminal activity, I don’t want to even see it. I don’t want to be biased. I don’t want to know anything. Send it to the proper authorities. There’s no reason it has be hanging around our office, especially if we have to release employees, fire people over all this,” Sherlock said, adding that the council decided to send the report to the proper authorities.
The administration is not releasing the report to the public at this time because of the possibility of legal action.
And if there is criminal activity, the council wants the proper authorities to handle it, she said.
The state Attorney General's Office had little to say about the report.
“It is our policy neither to confirm nor deny investigations,” said Dennis Fisher, a spokesman.
Heckler said his office has been receiving the investigation report piecemeal, and he hasn’t received the entire 3,200 pages. Much of it is internal disputes that could be handled by borough management, Heckler said without going into much detail.
Sherlock said that a 40-pound box was sent to each office with all the findings.
Heckler and borough management have been in contact. But as of last week, the DA’s Office had not responded to Morrisville officially.
“We are waiting to hear from the proper authorities,” Sherlock said.
There were a series of events the led the Morrisville administration to investigate the police department.
Police personnel are suing each other, so the borough’s insurance company advised the administration to conduct an independent investigation, borough Manager Tom Bates said.
In addition, the local government conducted an independent audit — Morrisville had not gone through one in nearly 20 years — that showed discrepancies within the police department.
Morrisville's administration would not release details of those discrepancies either.
The Cornerstone report cost taxpayers $130,000, the audit another $20,000, and the special attorney is costing the borough $350 an hour. The police department’s budget is $1.7 million.

Hearing Points to Challenges in Special Ed Funding

Hearing points to challenges in special ed funding
Posted: Friday, July 26, 2013 6:45 am | Updated: 7:02 am, Fri Jul 26, 2013.
President John F. Kennedy gave himself nearly a decade to send an astronaut to the moon. A state commission has until Nov. 30 to put together a new funding formula for special education — and its task might be more challenging.That 15-member panel held a hearing in Doylestown on Thursday, looking for a way to “drive money to districts based on need, not on disability,” said state Rep. Bernie O’Neill.O’Neill, a Warminster Republican, and Sen. Pat Browne, a Lehigh County Republican, are co-chairs of the commission seeking input on how to fairly distribute tax dollars for an expensive problem that continues to grow.
“Today’s costs are not tomorrow’s costs,” said Barry Galasso, executive director of the Bucks County Intermediate Unit. “It’s very difficult to pigeonhole.”
Galasso was among several IU directors testifying Thursday about the costs of special education.
Maria Edelberg, assistant executive director at Delaware County, used examples of seven students with a variety of disabilities who would cost from $31,000 to $73,000 a year to educate. Most area districts spend between $12,000 and $18,000 to educate non-special ed students.
Currently, state funding is based on an estimate that special education students make up 16 percent of the overall student population in each district. O’Neill, a former special education teacher for 25 years in the Centennial School District, has called that formula “archaic.”
Dave Matyas, business administrator of the Central Bucks School District, and Dale Scafuro, its director of student services, testified that in the last six years CB’s special education expenses have grown from $30 million to $38 million. State support, however, has remained flat at $7.5 million.
State and federal mandates are part of the problem, Matyas said.
“Rising pension costs and tough economic climates throughout most communities are causing school districts to reduce costs in other education areas to preserve mandated special education programs and hold the line on taxes,” he said.
Matyas said transportation is a factor the committee should consider in special ed expenses. Central Bucks operates 35 buses for students with “greater special needs.” They cost $75,000 per bus while a standard bus costs $45,000 to operate.
State Rep. Mike Sturla, D-96, said those numbers illustrate only part of the challenge because a standard bus might hold 40 or 50 children while a special ed bus likely only carries a handful of students.
“On a per student basis, it’s not one-and-a-half times the cost,” Sturla said. “It’s seven times the cost.”
State Rep. Marguerite Quinn, R-143, who was a guest on the panel as the hearing was held in her district, called the presentation “really eye-opening.”
Created by Act 3 of 2013, the commission’s formula must include the establishment of three cost categories for students receiving special education services, ranging from least intensive to most intensive.
The commission must obtain a student count for each school district, averaged for the three most recent school years, for each cost category established. It will assign a weight to each category of disability and develop a fair system for distributing the funding.
“There are a lot of people working behind the scenes on this,” O’Neill said. “That’s the purpose of getting this information. We’re trying to look at each category and drive money to districts based on need, not on disability.”
Browne said the state’s diversity adds to the “difficult challenge” because of the “demographics and relative wealth” of different areas. “That’s why we’re taking the work of the commission around the state so we can assess that.”

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Galloway to Host Town Meeting on his Proposed Tax Reform Bill

Galloway to host town meeting on his proposed tax reform bill

If the community has questions about Rep. John Galloway’s proposed Property Tax Independent Act bill that he’s pushing, he has the answers.Galloway, D-140, will host a forum at 7 p.m. Monday at Bristol Borough Hall, 250 Pond St. The state representative has received a number of inquiries about H.B. 76, which he’s sponsoring, so he’s scheduled the information session to provide residents an opportunity to learn the details of his bill, he said.“This proposal is not just another property tax relief measure,” Galloway said in a written statement, adding that once people understand the bill’s intent, they tend to get on board.
“Rather, it is about replacing an unfair and inequitable system of education funding with one that is a reflection of our 21st century economic reality.
House Bill 76 will eliminate all school property taxes across the commonwealth and will replace those taxes with funding from the personal income tax and the sales and use tax.”
Sen. Tommy Tomlinson, R-6, is scheduled to attend, according to Galloway’s office.
Additionally, Galloway has invited local officials, as well as community group leaders.
“When John contacted me I thought this was a great opportunity for people to get a first-hand explanation of the legislation from the local representatives who are sponsoring it. I have an open mind regarding the plan,” Bristol council President Ralph DiGuiseppe said in the written statement.
Galloway has the attention of Bill Pezza, chairman of the Bristol’s Economic Development Committee.
“From an economic development perspective, my specific interests rest with how it will affect Bristol. Will the change from property taxes stimulate home sales? Will the replacement sources of revenue sufficiently support our school system? How much autonomy will local governing bodies have under the proposal? It’s a complicated issue. I applaud anyone attempting to inform the public,” Pezza said in the written statement.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Pa. has New Teacher, Principal Evaluation System

Pa. has new teacher, principal evaluation system

SARA K. SATULLO, The Associated Press
EASTON, Pa. (AP) - School may be out for summer, but across Pennsylvania districts are gearing up for a new teacher evaluation system that takes student performance into account.
This fall begins a three-year roll out of the system, which was passed into law in 2012. Principals and specialists will be subject to the evaluations in 2014-15.
The new evaluation system replaces one that only labeled teachers as satisfactory or unsatisfactory based on classroom observation. Former state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis blasted that system, noting that in 2009-10 almost 100 percent of teachers and principals ranked satisfactory.
As a former teacher and schools superintendent, Pennsylvania Department of Education Deputy Secretary Carolyn Dumaresq said she knows educators, in most cases, weren't giving each other constructive evaluations.
"We want to make sure we are giving feedback to teachers to help them grow," she said. "We know the most important thing to increase student achievement in the classroom is the teacher."
The department has spent the past three years piloting the new system with 300 of the state's 500 school districts, Dumaresq said.
"It is complex because the artistry of teaching is complex," she said. "And it shouldn't just be one thing that we say, 'We are going to measure this and this and it counts for all things teachers do.'"
Starting this fall, districts will be expected to evaluate teachers using what is known as the Danielson method, which includes typical principal classroom observations as well as a detailed written rubric outlining skills.
"It is a lot more descriptive and takes some of the subjectivity out of it," Dumaresq said.
Bethlehem Area School District Assistant Superintendent for Education Jack Silva said his district is lucky because it already uses the Danielson method to evaluate teachers. Other districts that do not will have a lot of learning to do, he said.
"If the Danielson method is applied well, it is a powerful tool for teacher improvement," Silva said.
The state has been training administrators on the method through local intermediate units and it has provided free professional development materials that include videos of teachers exhibiting desired skills, Dumaresq said.
Preparing for the system has required a huge investment of time that is expected to increase, Silva said. Bethlehem hired recently retired district Principals Jacqueline Santanasto and Michele Fragnito to help implement the evaluations. They will be paid $400 a day on an as-needed basis for up to 60 days collectively.
"We are doing far more work on this unfunded mandate then we have ever done before," Silva said. "We are hopeful."
Multiple skills measured
The new evaluation system integrates multiple measures of student achievement.
"It's beyond the classroom observation of: What did the teacher do?" Dumaresq said. "They're now being held responsible for what the students actually learned."
A teacher's 2013-14 evaluation will take into account student performance through a building-wide grade.
"The state's thinking is if the school isn't doing as well, the teacher shouldn't be doing as well," Silva said.
The grade will be created through a "rich formula" that includes factors such as a student's academic growth in a year's time, SAT and Advanced Placement scores, and building-wide attendance and graduation rates, Dumaresq said.
The department sought input from school officials and residents on how it should measure what is an academically healthy building, she said.
Details of teacher evaluations will not be made public and the state will only know how many teachers are rated satisfactory. But the building profile and grades, which range from zero to 100, will be listed on a public website. Schools can earn a score of more than 100 if they've shown students are making more than a year's worth of educational growth in a single school year.
Evaluation consequences
Teacher contracts contain provisions for unsatisfactory evaluations, Silva said. For example, a contract might say that after two unsatisfactory evaluations that teacher will not get a raise, he said. Silva did not know the specifics of his district's contract but said struggling teachers are put on professional improvement plans in Bethlehem.
"They are professionals," Silva said. "There are standards for their evaluation and when they don't meet them there are consequences."
Starting in the 2014-15 school year, districts get to start including state-approved, locally chosen measures of teacher performance within evaluations, Dumaresq said. It gives teachers a chance to say: This is what is important for our students to learn, she said.
The district has been working closely with the Bethlehem Education Association to customize and implement the evaluation process, union President Jolene Vitalos said.
Then in 2015-16 the state starts providing a three-year rolling average of individual teacher performance based on their students' state assessment scores. It will show how much each teacher helped students grow in a year.
The state starts measuring that data this upcoming year, but it won't be part of the evaluation system until a teacher has three years of student data, Dumaresq said. The evaluation system includes rules taking into account that students are often taught by more than one teacher, she added.
Pennsylvania is pushing hard to make sure the data is fair and quality, but that's been a real struggle, Silva said. The new system leaves open questions, such as: What if a teacher is out on maternity leave half of the semester and a long-term substitute teacher replaces her?
"Being able to isolate the effect of a teacher on a student over a particular time, that is going to be difficult," Silva said.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130720_ap_4414af279591467291dfe7b0fcca6578.html#sclLHPp18h6qrUtC.99

The School Tax Vise

The School Tax Vise

Taxes soar, but still suburban districts struggle. And the problem's worsening.


 

Jessica Parks and Chris Palmer, Inquirer Staff Writers
Struggling to pay her taxes and save her Bucks County home, 80-year-old Catherine Gudknecht has worked part time for 17 years on an assembly line. This year, she is making $8.05 an hour."I really don't know where I'm going to go if I have to give my house up," she told the Bristol Township School Board last month at a public meeting, her eyes welling with tears. "I try to do it on my own, but it's getting hard."In the last 10 years, the school portion of the annual tax bill on her Levittown home has increased about $1,000, to more than $3,300. Despite her emotional plea, taxes went up again July 1.But Bristol's school-tax increase is modest compared with those of other districts in Montgomery, Bucks, Chester and Delaware Counties.
More coverage
  • Pa. districts prepare for new teacher evaluation system

  • According to an Inquirer analysis, school taxes in those four counties increased more than 40 percent in the last decade, in some cases double and triple the rate of inflation.On average, the increases have added about $1,200 to homeowners' tax bills. Even with those increases, however, districts continually struggle. Many confront budget deficits in the millions, year after year, necessitating cuts and adjustments to keep the districts afloat.Unlike New Jersey, where overall property levies have risen even faster, school millages in Pennsylvania constitute a heftier share of the annual property-tax bill. And they are one of the only revenue streams districts can use to keep up with cost increases.In Upper Dublin, where the nationally ranked $86 million-a-year school system is the pride of the township and a major real estate attraction, property taxes have risen 79 percent over the last decade.Yet the district is perpetually treading water in budgeting, most recently facing a $7.3 million deficit for 2013-14.Rather than cut into the district's elite academic offerings, the school board raised taxes 3 percent and resorted to layoffs, furloughs, demotions, early retirements, and a $2.5 million withdrawal from the reserve fund. By this time next year, the district says, it expects to have only $8,556 left in reserve."For me, as long as I have a school-age daughter, it's worth it," said Sheryl Nutis, whose school-tax bill has jumped from $3,663 to $6,521 in the last decade. "But I have relatives who want to move out of Upper Dublin because their kids are grown, and it keeps going up." Nowhere in the counties have bills increased more robustly than in Delaware County's Ridley School District. Millages there have almost doubled since the 2003-04 school year, adding about $1,900 to the typical tax bill. Despite the increases, a $2.5 million deficit has forced the district to drop 12 teaching positions.In Chester County's Octorara School District, where tax-exempt horse farms and other agricultural properties skew the tax burden, bills have risen almost $1,700.These districts' budget woes may pale in comparison with Philadelphia's, where officials begged a $304 million reprieve from Harrisburg and sent layoff notices to 3,859 employees, or those of the Chester-Upland School District, which has been taken over by the state. But many districts face intractable financial realities: Costs are rising, state and federal funding is not."We have no new revenue to go to, so that means property taxes," said Jay Himes, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials. In all, $3.9 billion in school real estate levies were collected in the four counties for fiscal 2010-11, compared with $2.3 billion 10 years before.Himes said a large chunk of school district expenses are fixed to personnel costs."We have a revenue problem, and we have an expenses problem," he added. Chief among the troublesome expenses, he said, are pension obligations.Because of a long-term deficit in the underfunded pension plan, district contributions to the Public School Employees Retirement System will rise from 12.36 percent to 16.93 percent next year and 21.31 percent the following year. Democrats have criticized Gov. Corbett in recent years for slashing education funding by $1 billion. Corbett has said the end of a federal stimulus program caused the downturn in spending. The legislature did approve a 2.27 percent increase in basic education funding for next year's budget.But in Upper Dublin, state funding accounts for only 14 percent of the budget, federal funding less than 1 percent.That leaves 85 percent of the burden on local revenue, where state law limits the amount school boards can raise their millage each year (for 2013-14 the base rate was 1.7 percent). "It's sort of a perfect storm. The pension problem, health-care costs. It makes it very difficult, there's nowhere to go," said Michael Paston, a former Upper Dublin School Board president. That budget storm has been raging with particular ferocity in the Ridley district, where millage rates have nearly doubled in the last decade. Superintendent Lee Ann Wentzel said the district was sensitive to concerns about the tax rate. The district received permission to exceed the state cap and raise taxes 2.2 percent next year, she said, but the board approved only a 2 percent increase.The district tried to take a multipronged approach to close its $2.5 million budget gap for next year, Wentzel said, and that included eliminating 12 teaching positions and shuffling middle-school schedules. Still, Wentzel, like her counterparts in neighboring districts, fears that these cut-and-paste budget solutions will not work long term."We've been very creative," she said, "but how much longer can we sustain this? I'm not sure, and that's a little frightening."While Bristol Township avoided teacher cuts for next year, the school board did remove a handful of classroom aides, cut funding for extracurricular activities, took $3.2 million from its fund balance, and raised taxes 2.2 percent to close its $9 million budget gap.In Upper Dublin, school boards have struggled for years with what Paston calls "a culture of crisis management." "Decisions that they know will need to happen get pushed off as long as possible," he said.The roots of the district's current crisis go back several years to when, under Paston's leadership, the board gave teachers a large salary increase. Paston said it was long overdue and was needed to bring Upper Dublin teachers into line with neighboring districts.Now, three-quarters of the district's budget is tied up in "the inescapable math" of personnel costs, Superintendent Michael J. Pladus said. The district next year is locked into a $2.5 million salary increase and a 4.6 percent pension increase that brings the average annual teacher cost to more than $98,000 - not including medical benefits, which Pladus said can cost as much as $15,000 per teacher.Upper Dublin's salaries are now comparable to those in neighboring districts in Montgomery County, but those are eight of the state's 15 highest-paying districts. With the teacher and support-staff contracts expiring in June 2014, Pladus is optimistic that the district will have more room to maneuver in next year's budget.The outcome of those negotiations could determine whether Upper Dublin survives with more patchwork solutions, or has to resort to more drastic measures.In the neighboring Wissahickon School District, officials hope that a school-closing and realignment plan can help stabilize long-term funding. But it's also breaking parents' hearts and sowing acrimony among residents. Elsewhere, districts have looked at outsourcing food service, transportation, and support-staff jobs, or cutting entire programs."The things that are incredibly valuable to the holistic education - arts, music, sports - will all but cease to exist," said Bristol Superintendent Samuel Lee, adding that those are the things students want most."We have to decide what we want for our children and how much we can afford," he added.For taxpayers such as Gudknecht, however, affording anything more would represent a major challenge."Every penny I get has to go toward school taxes," she said last month. "There's no other way."

    Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130721_The_School_Tax_Vise.html#cCcC23xBJEsyVAbL.99

    Wednesday, July 10, 2013

    Potluck #82

    How 'bout a fresh one.  What's going on, besides the cops?

    Sunday, July 7, 2013

    Underfunded Pensions a Growing Problem Across Pa.

    Underfunded pensions a growing problem across Pa.

    The Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System pension subsidy will total nearly $1 billion on top of the state´s $5.8 billion payroll.
    The Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System pension subsidy will total nearly $1 billion on top of the state's $5.8 billion payroll.
    Story Highlights
    • Pa. is home to 25 percent of all the public pension plans in the nation.
    • Local government pensions (not including Philadelphia's) are underfunded by about $2 billion in Pa.
    • Pension costs have contributed to tax hikes and layoffs in a number of suburbs. 
    Ben Finley, Inquirer Staff Writer
    Some towns have raised taxes and others have cut services as they endure their own versions of the pension crisis playing out in Harrisburg.
    In fact, Pennsylvania - home of 25 percent of all the public pension plans in the nation - has so many ailing plans that pension distress might qualify as an official state illness.
    Some Philadelphia suburbs have had to double - even quadruple - their minimum pension payments for retired police officers and municipal workers. And 30 of the area's municipal pension plans are funded at 69 percent or less, according to Pennsylvania's Public Employee Retirement Commission.
    Pension costs have contributed to tax hikes in Haverford Township and layoffs in Towamencin, and delayed renovations on a police station in New Britain.
    More coverage
  • Answering questions on Harrisburg's budget mess
  • Another $45M hole emerges for schools
  • As obligations mount, experts predict that more communities will have to raise taxes or cut services.
    "It's up to the locality to find the money," said James McAneny, executive director of the commission. "But ultimately, the obligation lands on the citizens, the taxpayers, and the residents of the community."
    The recession deflated local pension plans in the same way it drained retirement funds for state workers and teachers. Municipalities can depend less on investment gains to shoulder pension costs, forcing them to spend more tax dollars on retirement benefits.
    Overall, local government pensions (not including Philadelphia's) are underfunded by about $2 billion in Pennsylvania, according to Temple University's Center for Regional Politics. That's a fraction of the $46 billion that's lacking in the pension funds for state workers, public-school teachers, and the City of Philadelphia.
    The majority of Pennsylvania's public pension plans are healthy - funded above 89 percent. But hundreds have lost value. In the Philadelphia suburbs, 29 towns have pensions under a "moderate" level of distress because they are less than 70 percent funded, according to the retirement commission.
    Thornbury Township, Chester County, is listed as having a "severe" distress level. Its pension fund for employees is 23 percent funded.
    An underfunded pension fund is not illegal, said McAneny. Towns are following the law as long as they make the minimum payments to pension plans.
    Addressing the problem won't be easy. Unlike the statewide plans for teachers and state workers, Pennsylvania has more than 3,000 public pension funds, a quarter of all the public plans in the country. Each varies in size and is governed by a constellation of statutes depending on the type of government involved.
    "They're like snowflakes," McAneny said. "Welcome to chaos."
    Many towns have weathered rising pension costs with little impact on taxes or services. Lower Makefield, a township of 30,000 people in Bucks County, absorbed a 50 percent jump - about $300,000 - in annual pension payments in five years by reducing other expenses, Township Manager Terry Fedorchack said.
    But pension costs have contributed to tax hikes and layoffs in other suburbs.
    Towamencin, a township of about 18,000 in Montgomery County, saw annual pension obligations quadruple in 10 years to $800,000, about 6 percent of its annual budget, Board of Supervisors Chairman Dan Littley said. In 2010, the costs contributed to a tax hike of about $136 on the average home, as well as the layoff of five workers. The township also paved fewer roads.
    In New Britain Township, a community of 11,000 in Bucks County, increasing pension costs contributed to layoffs of two administrative employees and the indefinite delay of police renovations. The growing costs have consumed about 17 percent of its $1.7 million budget this year, Township Manager Eileen Bradley said.
    In Haverford, a township of about 50,000 in Delaware County, pension costs doubled to $2.7 million in five years, amounting to about 8 percent of the township's budget. Pension costs were a large contributing factor to tax hikes, including a $55 increase for the average homeowner in 2011, according to Jeff Heilmann, a board commissioner.
    Haverford has been able to temper rising pension costs by moving newly hired municipal workers into 401(k) plans, shifting the market risk onto employees instead of taxpayers, Heilmann said.
    Eugene DePasquale, Pennsylvania's auditor general, said the stock market downturn had an "enormous impact" on municipal pension funds, resulting in some becoming underfunded.
    "The money isn't owed tomorrow," he added. "But there's no question there is a funding gap. And the question is, how do you fix that gap?"
    Towamencin has always paid its pension obligations. But in 2011, its pension plans were only 64 percent funded, mostly because of investment losses, said Littley, the board chairman.
    The fund continues to improve with market gains, Littley added.
    Lawmakers in Harrisburg are considering several statewide changes. One bill would require officials to consider whether a town could afford all of the provisions in police and firefighter union contracts. Another idea is to encourage municipalities to consolidate their plans.
    Either way, the stock market won't solve municipal pension woes in the long run, said Joseph McLaughlin, director of Temple's Center for Regional Politics. The losses from the recession were too great.
    "Sooner or later, these obligations from the past have to be paid for," McLaughlin said. "There will be tax increases eventually, tied to the operating budget. And they will be caused partly by the need to fund these pensions. And there will be service cuts."

    Friday, July 5, 2013

    Retirement Contribution Increases Impacting Local School Budgets

    2013-2014 School Budgets
    Retirement contribution increases impacting local school budgets

     
    Posted: Friday, July 5, 2013 1:30 pm | Updated: 4:49 pm, Fri Jul 5, 2013.
    Property tax rates in the Bensalem, Bristol, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts will stay at their current levels in 2013-14, according to budgets recently adopted by area school boards.Average property tax increases in the other Lower Bucks County school districts range from $52.01 in Centennial to $79.52 in Bristol Township, according to the adopted budgets.Local school boards used a variety of measures to keep their respective 2013-14 budgets in check including the reduction of work forces through attrition or staffing cuts, and Pennsbury’s closure of Village Park Elementary School.
    A growing concern, according to board members and district administrators, is the increasing amount of money that school systems are being required to contribute to the Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System.
    For instance, Pennsbury will use $1.2 million in 2013-14 from $5 million in reserve funds that have been set aside to help pay for the increasing contributions, spokeswoman Ann Langtry said.
    Pennsbury will pay approximately $15.5 million toward retirement costs this school year, compared with $11.4 million in 2012-13, Langtry said. District officials estimate the contribution will jump to $19.6 million in 2014-15.
    Other area districts also are bracing for escalated contributions, including Council Rock, which anticipates having to pay $32.7 million to the public employee retirement system by 2016-17.
    The state reimburses a district half of the respective contribution it makes each year. Despite that, the 2013-14 contribution was still the single biggest increase in expenses for Pennsbury, Langtry said.
    The new budgets took effect July 1. School districts began mailing out the tax bills at the beginning of the month, officials said.
    Eligible property owners will see an exemption credit on their respective bills. The credit is from state gaming revenues, as called for in the state’s Property Tax Relief Act known as Act 1.
    The state divided $611.6 million in revenue collected from casinos across Pennsylvania to send to school districts to cover the 2013-14 credit assessed to individual property owners.
    The 2013-14 credits for Lower Bucks districts range from $152 in Centennial to $272 in Bristol Township and are generally about the same as the 2012-13 credit amounts.
    Local districts shaped their budgets within the taxing restraints established by Act 1.
    It allowed most districts to raise millage rates a maximum of 1.7 percent more than the 2012-13 tax rate. However, Bristol Township was able to raise its millage rate 2.2 percent.
    The index rates are determined by averaging the statewide average weekly wage with employment cost index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, state officials said.

    Monday, July 1, 2013

    Highlights of Pa.'s 2013-14 Budget Plan

    Highlights of Pa.'s 2013-14 budget plan
     
    Posted: Monday, July 1, 2013 5:15 am

    Highlights of the 2013-14 spending plan that was signed by Gov. Tom Corbett for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

    THE BIG PICTURE:
    — Increases overall state spending by 2.6 percent to nearly $28.4 billion from last year's approved budget.
    — Raises approximately $28.4 billion through taxes, fees and other revenue sources.
    TAXES
    — Does not increase the sales tax or personal income tax.
    — Cuts business taxes by more than an estimated $300 million.
    — Extends life of capital stock and franchise tax for two years past its scheduled expiration on Dec. 31. The rate would drop from 0.89 mills in 2013 to 0.67 mills in 2014 and to 0.45 mills in 2014.
    — Increases the cap on losses businesses can write off from $3 million in 2013 to $4 million in 2014 and $5 million in 2015.
    PENSIONS
    — Pays an additional $160 million for public school employees' pension costs, but saves $49 million by school employees' Social Security payments.
    — Does not include Gov. Tom Corbett's plan to overhaul the state's biggest public employee pensions and it does not reflect any changes he proposed.
    EDUCATION
    — Increases funding for public school instruction and operations by about $129 million to nearly $5.5 billion.
    — Maintains spending for higher education at this year's $1.2 billion level.
    — Does not include money for Corbett's proposed Passport for Learning block grant program for public schools.
    HEALTH CARE/SOCIAL SERVICES
    — Does not include impact of a potential expansion of Medicaid eligibility.
    — Increases Department of Public Welfare budget by $333 million to nearly $11 billion.
    PUBLIC SAFETY
    — Increases budget to operate state prisons by $75 million to above $1.9 billion.
    — Includes nearly $15 million for three new state police cadet classes that are expected to train 290 troopers.
    ___
    Sources: Pennsylvania Senate Republicans.