Every year, the Mt. Lebanon School Board Directors approve the publication of all properties on which taxes for the prior year have not yet been paid. This list is provided by the Tax Office and has been provided through a Right To Know.
The list is available here.
The #s themselves are not as important as the trends... are there more people (as the newcomers predicted) being foreclosed on/not paying their taxes, in correlation with the excessive raises in tax rates? What are the trends over the last few years??
ReplyDeleteFor those interested, I checked this Blog for the lien records Elaine has published, and found data for 2011, 2012, and 2013. The number of properties liened are as follows:
ReplyDelete2011 - 305
2012 - 216
2013 - 279
Three years of data is not enough to see a "big picture" trend. What can be said is that there was a significant drop in liens from 2011 to 2012, and a significant rise from 2012 to 2013.
Jan Klein was quick to point out that the list is for the 2013 liened properties. This does not include those liened properties from prior years.
ReplyDeleteElaine
What gets lost in all these conversations is the fact that our ever increasing taxes are being used to pay for a $2 million useless piece of property purchase on McNeilly Road that was suppose to alleviate overuse and overcrowding on our ballfields.
ReplyDeleteAnd now we're using another million to supposedly once again gain game slots.
Commissioner Linfante made a big speech about how we have a democracy here in Lebo and not a system of rule by referendum.
She may be right, but she fails to consider that she and her cohorts were put in office to act responsibly and oversee prudent use of our hard-earned dollars.
Ignoring a $2 million money pit and running off to spend another $1-2 million on yet another sports project is not effective leadership.
It's shirking of the responsibilites of her office! Doesn't matter who bought McNeilly, she and her pals are in office NOW and using it or getting rid of it is her job, unless of course she has $2 million she'd like to donate.
Deal with the current issues Linfante before looking for more things to spend money on. It is what your constituents put you in office to do and if I remember correctly you promised to do.
4:56 PM, I don't question anything you are saying, but please realize that this list is from the School District and not for tax liened properties for Mt. Lebanon, PA (municipality).
ReplyDeleteElaine
Understood, but in the end to the property owners that are having trouble paying property taxes It really doesn't matter if the taxes are SD or municipality.
ReplyDeleteOver $800,000 in municipal undesignated tax revenue is being used to buy plastic turf. Who knows what each homeowner is paying on the McNeilly property.
If those undesignated funds were rebated to the taxpayers as Kluck suggested maybe a few homes wouldn't be liened on.
After all, when you do your household budgeting, do you look at it as we're only on behind on the healthcare or the gas bills, we're fine on the vacation budget and Beemer payments?
Some are for $5 or less... This is just plain crazy!
ReplyDeleteYep 3:07, this is exactly why we need school property tax reform in PA.
ReplyDeletePeople are living under the false impression that they actually own their home when all the school district needs to do to possess it is raise taxes and force you out to fill their demand for more and more money.
Tax reform will just end up in the pockets of overpaid staff or the state government will siphon off the larger share for their own departments just like the casino money.
ReplyDeleteLets cut pensions before we reform the tax system in the state. Defined benefit plans need to be replaced by personal savings.
Great logic, 8:21.
ReplyDeleteAnd that mastectomy to eradicate a cancer that will eventually kill you, will leave a nasty scar and put a lot of money in the surgeons pocket.
You're right, lets not do anything.
8:21-- "just end up in the pockets of overpaid staff or the state government will siphon off the larger share..."
ReplyDeleteYou mean like they are doing now!
9:53,
ReplyDeleteYou made my point! JUST LIKE THEY ARE DOING NOW!
Sorry I missed your point, 12:16.
ReplyDeleteI agree on pension reform but how does that rein in school spending.
With the powerful teachers' union do you think they will take pension reductions lying down?
They'll argue that they need more and larger pay raises to offset the pension cuts.
Districts could effectively cut rising future pension cost by cutting back on pay raises.
By slowing down payroll hikes to something closer to the CPI and pegging staffing to enrollments that would help the pension problem.
Look at Lebo. Enrollments have been declining yet we have more and more expensive staff.
Back in the days when the school district had 3,500 students, we had one superintendent and one assistant superintendent.
ReplyDeleteNow with enrollment below 3,200 students, we have one super and two assistant supers... and an $85,000/year employee We never had panhandling for money to keep the district operating in the black.
I have not been able to find the July 21st School Board meeting television broadcast. Is it still filmed for television? Given the approach of the High School spending limit, it is important for the responsible parties, the Board of Directors, to make all the information available to the public.
ReplyDeletewow very surprised and interesting to see my elitist pompous neighbor's name near the top of the list...
ReplyDelete