The PG reports:
Meanwhile, the board plans to approve a resolution next week as a formal objection to not receiving state reimbursement for a portion of the ongoing high school renovation project.How can the State reimburse Mt. Lebanon when we're behind in filing the proper documents for the PlanCon process? Part H (PDF), Project Financing addresses the financing used for a project. Calculation of the temporary reimbursable percent for a project's financing occurs at PlanCon Part H. Once PlanCon Part H is approved, reimbursement on a project commences. Have we done this?
Participation in a long-standing process called Planning and Construction Workbook, or PlanCon, entitles school districts to be compensated for embarking on capital improvement projects.
According to Mr. Steinhauer, Mt. Lebanon is owed about $450,000 per year, eventually totaling $11 million, but the state budget has not provided for any reimbursements to school districts the past two years. Some 125 districts are being affected, and many have drafted similar resolutions.
The documents are being sent to the offices of Gov. Tom Corbett and Education Secretary Ron Tomalis, as well as to state senators and representatives. Many of them are unaware of the lack of reimbursements, Director Mary Birks said.
"We are bringing it to their attention so that they know what the issue is," she said.
The High School Renovation Process (saved in Google Docs) illustrates how behind the board is in the process. It shows that PlanCon Part F was the last submission approved. However, the February 20, 2012 agenda indicates "That the Board approves submission of PlanCon Part H to the Pennsylvania Department of Education in substantially the form presented." This is the last item I can find pertaining to PlanCon Part H. Was it ever approved by the PDE? Did the board approve it after that - approve the approval?
I have been told that even after PlanCon H is submitted, approved by the state,
and the state's approval is accepted by the District, that an application for state subsidy must be submitted for each scheduled payment. Has that been done?
Reimbursement is not reflected in the budget. Once approved, the budget cannot be reopened, unlike the Municipality. Just as the Covenant tax money was never shown in a budget, this PlanCon money will disappear as well. How could the State provide reimbursement in the past two years when the paperwork was allegedly submitted last February?
The Lebo Shell Game lives on. As a reader commented previously,
"Jan Klein has and will continue to plug the state reimbursement hole with our tax dollars to balance the budget - read that extra millage - and that extra millage will not be reduced when the state payments are finally paid !"
