Friday, February 8, 2013

Superintendent recommends approval of fake budget

The February 11, 2013 Agenda has been posted. We still don't know what the exceptions are, but rest assured, they are high enough. Don't you just love Jan Klein's transparency?

Preliminary Budget – Act 1 of 2006 requires us to prepare and the Board to approve a preliminary budget in order to be able to apply for exceptions to the Index limitation on real estate tax rates for the 2013-14 school year budget. As discussed at prior meetings, this budget is not the detailed budget which will be available for Board and community review in the spring once additional information is known on both revenue and expenditure accounts. This budget totals $84,469,784, which is high enough to enable us to apply for all applicable exceptions. Approval of this preliminary budget does not require the Board to approve this millage amount when the final budget is adopted in May. The superintendent recommends approval of this legally required budget.

Here is Dan Remely's take on the fake budget:

From: DRemely@mtlsd.net
To: Concerned Resident

Subject: RE: fake budget
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2013 18:51:17 +0000

I think the final budget should be much lower. There are too many unknowns to establish a final budget at this time. Dan


From: Concerned Resident
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2013 10:11 AM
To: Daniel Remely
Subject: fake budget

Dan,
What do you think of the $84.5 million fake budget?
Don't you think it's too high?
Concerned Resident

MTLSD DISCLAIMER: THIS TRANSMISSION IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE ADDRESSEE AND MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT IS PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL, AND EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW. IF YOU ARE NOT THE INTENDED RECIPIENT, OR THE EMPLOYEE OR AGENT RESPONSIBLE FOR DELIVERING THE MESSAGE TO THE INTENDED RECIPIENT, YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT ANY DISSEMINATION, RETENTION, DISTRIBUTION, OR COPYING OF THIS COMMUNICATION IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS COMMUNICATION IN ERROR, PLEASE NOTIFY THE SENDER IMMEDIATELY.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bowl me over with a feather! You're kidding the super. recommends approval of the fake budget, boy am I surprised!!!!! Not!
Who wants to bet good old Danny-boy pretends he think the budget should be lower. He'll cry big crocodile tears that he's against it , but their won't be any persuasion or criticism of his republican board pals that intend to approve it. IMO

Goldman might reject it. Ostergard and Kubit will bend over and accept the big one for us all with a smile.

Bill Matthews said...

One of the most significant problems with our School Board is the board's ever increasing determination to offend rather than inform the Community.

Last budget season, at the December 12, 2011 board meeting, an easy to read budget summary was made available on the District site.

Board Agenda Link:
http://tinyurl.com/MTLSD-Agendas

Budget Summary Link:
http://tinyurl.com/MTLSD-2012-2013

This year we are presented with the bureaucrat inspired PDE Form 2028.

PDE 2028 Link:
http://tinyurl.com/MTLSD-2013-2014

At this point in time, the Community should be provided a budget document which is not only easy to read, but informative.

Such a document would include: 1) 2011-2012 Audited Results, 2) 2012-2013 Budget, 3) 2012-2013 Estimated, and finally 4) 2013-2014 Preliminary Budget.

Just like last year!

I am going to go out on a limb and postulate that our uber School Board Directors do have just such a document in their pre-deliberative, uber sensitive, eyes-only, classified reading materials.

Which by the way, is no solace to the continually offended.

John Ewing said...

Bill Matthews, You would be surprised just how much more information comes in a board packet compared to what we are told in the community. However, you have to remember Mrs. Klein whinned for a 6.9% salary hike that exceeded her pay grade, and I'll bet that came with a hike in pension benefits and perhaps a hike in healthcare too. It would be interesting to know the total cost of Jan's pay increase so we could really judge her worth to the community. Too bad the Board has a contempt for the community that allows such an attitude to prevail.

John

John David Kendrick said...

Has anyone ever evaluated outsourcing the entire finance / comptroller function from internal school district employees to a third party?

It wouldn't surprise me to see how quickly many of the functions would be automated.

Anonymous said...

Well, if Dan Remely thinks that the real budget should be much lower than the fake budget, is that like he thought the "renovation" plan ought to be $95 million or less, too? He has a very poor record for such prognostications and his view could be called a "negative indicator."

Anonymous said...

School Employees Retirement payments from 2012-2013 until 2013-2014 are going up $223,948,000 in the state budget, up 26.2%. The school districts statewide will have to match this amount.

Social security payments from the state are going up $112,000 or near 0%, so the districts will have to pay almost the entire social security increase for themselves and the state too. The state contribution for social security by the state is already $554,438,000 for 2012-2013.
Community College funding is flat.

PSU, Temple, Pitt and Lincoln Univ. funding is flat

School District Health Services 0.0% increase.

Changes to State Employees Retirement Pension and School Employees Retirement Pension would save $175,000,000 in 2013-2014.

Anonymous said...

continued from last post

STEM Initiatives. Enhancing access to STEM programs (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in our schools is critical to preparing our students for the jobs of tomorrow. This grant will provide funding to public schools to enrich programs that support STEM in grades
6-12, including career exploration activities, opportunities for technical skill attainment and partnerships with post secondary education and training programs. The Governor’s plan will allow substantial new investments in public schools without raising taxes; strengthen the
PLCB’s role as regulator and enforcer of the alcohol
sales business; provide Pennsylvanians with the same convenience, selection and pricing available to every other American; and create a wave of new, private sector jobs.

Anonymous said...

Continued from the state budget message,

Pennsylvanians will be able to ship wine to their homes.

Fines for selling to minors and visibly intoxicated persons will be significantly increased.

State Police and PLCB liquor law enforcement programs will receive a $5 million, or 22 percent, funding increase.

Alcohol treatment and prevention efforts will receive a $1.5 million, or 75 percent, increase in funding.

Measures for affected PLCB employees, including tax
credits for businesses that hire separated workers,
educational credits, civil service credits, individual
employment plans and a multi-agency committee to help displaced workers find employment will be put into place.

Anonymous said...

I haven't heard or maybe I missed it— does the fake budget included the 2nd bond bond for the high school project?

Or is that the other shoe that will be dropping soon?

Wouldn't it be sad if our kids had to tell their grandkids, things were so tough when we were in school we had to walk barefoot, uphill, in the snow to get to school. And really mean it!!! LOL