The Big Reveal

This is very confusing, but here it goes.  After the County Reassessment, our millage will decrease by 4.54 mills to 22.61 mills. But it is still a .42 millage increase.  No fund balance will be used.  Jan Klein will be setting aside funds that will not show up in the budget for appeals.  Asbury Heights and Concordia are the biggest appeals.

Larry Lebowitz commented on the outstanding grievance. The fund balance will be used if the grievance is awarded to union.

What I don't understand is how the municipality put this information in their agenda and shared it with residents on Friday, but the school board has to keep it under wraps.

The question remains about the gaming revenue. Still no final budget posted anywhere.

New Mills Final Budget

Estimated value of Community Assessment in 2013

Budget Reduction Concepts

Proposed Final Budget posted

The Proposed Final Budget has been posted on the District website and is available here. It is still under the old mills.  The Proposed Final Budget using the State Required Form is here.

Upper St. Clair School Board on April 22 (Saved in Google Docs) adopted a proposed final budget for 2013-14 that lowers the real estate tax millage rate by 16.6 percent.

The board had a goal of not raising taxes, and in fact is being forced by state law to lower its tax rate to account for an overall increase in taxable real estate value in the township as a result of the Allegheny County Reassessment, which takes effect this year. School districts are prohibited from gaining a so-called windfall in revenues solely as a result of increased property values, whereas municipalities are permitted a five percent increase in revenues.

Upper St. Clair's tax rate dropped from 25.718 for 2012-13 to 21.438 for 2013-14.  Superintendent Patrick O'Toole will be posting a letter and budget summary on their district website by the end of the week. [Our super Super only posts pics of lunches and construction.]


A blog reader submitted this math problem to me, which I found compelling.

If you own a $250,000 home in the #1 USC school district (21.438 mills) you'll owe $5,359.50 in taxes.

That same home in Mt. Lebanon will cost you $6,917.50 in school district taxes. (27.67 mills)

Or a premium of $1,558.00 to send your kids to the #2 school district.

Another Budget "Fast One"

The School Board is at it again. Under law, the Board must have the final budget available for inspection for thirty days prior to the vote. According to their web page Budget News, the final vote will take place on May 20, 2013. The following is on the Home page:
School Board Approves Proposed Final Budget

At the April 15,2013 Regular Board meeting, the School Board approved a Proposed Final Budget for the 2013-2014 school year in the amount of $83,249,503 at a millage rate of 27.67, an increase of .54 mills over last year's budget. The Board will vote on the final budget at the May 20 School Board meeting.

I sent this email directly to Jan Klein since the Board tends to ignore my emails.
Ms. Klein was kind enough to respond.

From: Jan Klein <JKlein@mtlsd.net>
To: egillen476 <egillen476@aol.com>
Cc: School Board Email list <SchoolBoardEmaillist@mtlsd.net>
Subject: RE: Budget
Date: Mon, Apr 22, 2013 7:57 am

The budget will be posted before the end of this week.

Respectfully,

Jan

Janice Klein
Director of Business
Mt. Lebanon School District
7 Horsman Drive Pittsburgh, PA 15228
412-344-2098 (office) 412-559-9310 (cell)

I prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom - Anatole France

-----Original Message----- From: egillen476@aol.com [mailto:egillen476@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, April 19, 2013 9:25 PM
To: Jan Klein
Cc: School Board Email list
Subject: Budget

Ms. Klein

Where is the budget posted? I don't see it on the website.

Thank you.

Elaine Gillen

________________________________
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.________________________________

In addition, the District Budget page has included the video of the April 8 meeting. The April 2 Budget Forum was never uploaded to the District website. As it has been pointed out many times here on Lebo Citizens, I asked nine questions at the Budget Forum and was treated rudely by Mrs. Birks and Mrs. Cappucci.  In addition, Mt. Lebanon resident Bill Matthews gave an excellent presentation and was treated rudely by Mrs. Cappucci.

Tongue in cheek, the website also offers:

Contact the School Board
The Mt. Lebanon School Board is interested in your feedback. Residents are encouraged to email the Board with questions or comments at schoolboard@mtlsd.net.

I presume that the Budget is available in the District Offices somewhere, in the meantime. If not, they are pulling another fast one, as they are with not posting the Budget Forum.

"Even Our Critics Have Chosen to Remain in the Community"

Last evening's board discussion concerning the budget starts at the 1:00:35 mark (about half way through) of the podcast found here. Some of the highlights include:

• There is no windfall. Act 1 will permit 1.7% in real estate dollars plus exceptions.
• Goldman, Ostergaard and Remely will not support the budget. 
• No Cooperisms other than he could not hear parts of the meeting while phoning in.
• Posti indicated that residents' income in 15228, our largest zipcode, have collectively seen an increase in their incomes of 12.6% since 2010.
• Posti (approximately at the 1:20:00 mark) also stated that while some of the critics bet three years ago that the millage increase needed to fund the high school project would tax people out of their homes, impact our housing market, and make our community undesirable for new families to move to, it has not been the case.  In fact our housing market has remained strong, the increases have not been as high as predicted. Even our critics have chosen to remain in the community. Betting on failure is always a losing bet.
• Goldman felt that we have not had those hard conversations.

I, for one, have not "chosen" to remain in the community. I am stuck here. I am working to fix up my house for when I am forced out when the deer killing begins. I have virtually no income and have been living a modest life since the first time I spoke about the budget in 2010. So it has been a slow process.  I resent Posti saying that critics have chosen to remain here. I absolutely hate what our elected officials have done to this town. 

It is all about pizza these days UPDATED

Still listening to the podcast from Monday night's school board meeting, but I see that a couple of documents have been added to the District website.

Proposed Budget Reduction Concepts for 2013-14 shows that the board will gain $5000 by increasing the student parking fee from $50 to $75 per year. Still yet to be determined is the student activities fee structure, but the cost of that line item is $50,000.  Still no mention of administration concessions.

The Proposed Final Budget of April 5, 2013 shows a proposed budget increase of .54 mills.

In The Almanac article, Mt. Lebanon Schools announce savings, look for more cuts, Bill Cooper wants the full .54 mill increase.

Board member William Cooper, on the other hand, advocated for the full proposed .54 mill increase, comparing it to “two large pizzas” on a $100,000 house. He laid the blame for the pension crunch on the state and individual school districts, which held back pension contributions in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

If that is the case, may I collect Little Caesars Pizza coupons and pay the increase with those? They could be used for Timmy's monthly pizza lunches with the kids. Speaking of Tim, The Almanac reports:

If the board would like to further reduce millage, and the superintendent is unable to make headway with the union on pay concessions, the best option would be to use leftover fund balance to rein in taxes.

How are those union concessions working for you, Tim? Have you offered to personally make concessions, along with the rest of the administrators? I am betting as I do every year, that you will be getting that tidy increase, instead of a freeze or concession.

Update April12, 2013 9:30 AM Mt. Lebanon school board still working to cut tax hike