School Board President Larry Lebowitz and our illustrious superintendent sent a letter to Governor Tom Wolf expressing their opposition to the elimination of the Act 1 Index. In the PG's Mt. Lebanon School District opposes elimination of Act 1 Index, elimination of the Act 1 Index would mean that school districts would have to put a referendum on the ballot for any and all property tax increases.
Act 1 went into effect in 2006 and allows school districts to apply to increase taxes for expenses such as pension payments and special education to a pre-set index based on wage inflation. Currently, a referendum is not needed for the increases as long as they don’t exceed the district’s index.
Larry thinks that is a bad idea. Programs would have to be cut. He wants us to write letters to our legislators. Uh, no, Larry. This gal will not be doing that. We don't like the huge raises that administrators have been giving themselves. Eliminating the Act 1 Index would kill Jan Klein's fake budget that she submits in the winter months. (I think it is in February.) She took advantage of all the exceptions and frankly, cooked the books. I think it is long overdue. I wrote about it in June 2011, A Referendum for School District Taxes? Mt. Lebanon has been abusing Act 1 since its beginning. I hope Act 1 Index is eliminated.
