6-1 in favor of .54 mill increase UPDATED

I didn't go to the meeting, but I did hear the news that Scott Goldman was the only school board director to vote against the budget. Ed Kubit and Bill Cooper were absent. (Note: Ed Kubit missed the 10.5% increase in 2010.)

School Board Approves Final Budget for 2014-15 School Year May 19, 2014  At the May 19, 2014 School Board meeting the Board approved a Final Budget for the 2014-2015 School Year in the amount of $87,924,509 setting the millage rate at 23.15 mills, a .54 mill increase over the 2013-2014 millage rate with the use of $750,000 of the Fund Balance to balance revenues with expenditures.

Bill Matthews was chewed out again. Larry Lebowitz questioned Bill's numbers. After all, Jan Klein won that damn award.

The Mt. Lebanon School District received the Association of School Business Officials International’s Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting award for having met or exceeded the program’s high standards for financial reporting and accountability for the 2013 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. This is the 29th year the District has been honored with this prestigious award.

A little background on this. We pay for this award. As long as all the parts of the report are submitted, you win the award. Table of contents? Check. Meet the criteria and you win! So double counting is permitted.

Of course, Elaine Cappucci said that they were so fiscally responsible that they eliminated the Assistant Superintendent for the Primary Schools. Then it was announced that Dr. Marybeth Irvin, the new principal at Lincoln who had coffee with Dr. Steinhauer according to Timmy's Traveling Twitter Tweets on the first day of school, was appointed as the new Assistant Superintendent for the Primary Schools.

Oh, big news! "The Grievance" was settled. It only cost the District $60,000! They have agreed to hire permanent subs at the appropriate step.

The podcast to tonight's meeting is available here.

Update May 20, 2014 9:07 AM From Bill Matthews:

Last night I provided the Board with the above chart, demonstrating that in eight of the last nine years the budget has been under budget on the expenditure side by almost $1,000,000 per year, on average. And once again, the Board “baked in” these surpluses from days of yore, raising taxes to cover these ghost expenses, ultimately resulting in an unnecessary and unwarranted tax increase.

Three things (at least) are at play that makes it difficult to work with the Board on budget issues:


1) Their obsequiousness to the Administration’s financial information.
2) Their obsequiousness to the Administration’s financial information.
3) Their obsequiousness to the Administration’s financial information.


While the budget information available to the public is quite limited, albeit often “award” winning, it is far from error free. Please see these pages from the recent annual budget books, where over three years the revenue and expenditure information is repeated, repeated and repeated, as if to make a point.

Dear Mt. Lebanon Neighbor:

Dear Mt. Lebanon Neighbor:

Attached is a letter I sent to our School Board expressing my concern with the 0.54 mill tax increase recommended by Dr. Steinhauer.

Mt. Lebanon School District has historically prepared budgets that produce significant (and at times substantial) surpluses, and yet continues to raise our taxes.

Enough is enough.

In addition to my letter, I have attached a file, which includes several years of budget summaries with actual, audited results back to the 2002-2003 school year. These historical records support my observation of year-over-year budget surpluses.

It is my belief, next year’s increase could easily be limited to 0.30 mills, if not lower; and most importantly, without impacting a single educational program.

It appears next Monday, May 19, our Board intends to approve yet another unnecessary tax increase. If, after reviewing this information, you believe this unwarranted tax increase deserves further review, please contact our School Board.

Our School Board may be contacted by e-mail using this address: schoolboard@mtlsd.net

Please feel free to forward this e-mail and attachments to friends and neighbors who may be concerned, as I am, with our ever growing and unsustainable tax burden.

Regards,

Bill Matthews

Once, twice, three times a lady...

For those of you who are new to this, it takes at least 2-3 emails to our finance director, before your question gets answered. Here is an example.

From: Mr. Concerned Resident
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2014 11:36 AM
To: Jan Klein
Subject: double counting

Ms. Klein,
At Tuesday’s school board meeting a Mt. Lebanon taxpayer, Bill Matthews, discussed what he felt was double counting properties that were currently under appeal and as a result of this there was a $36 million difference.
Was Mr. Matthews accurate in his thinking?
I would like to obtain the documents that show the $214 pertaining to current appeals and compare for myself to see if these properties were double counted. Do I need a right to know request to obtain these documents?
Thank you,

Concerned Resident
Mt. Lebanon, PA

****

From: Jan Klein [mailto:JKlein@mtlsd.net]
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2014 11:46 AM
To: Mr. Concerned Resident
Cc: Dr. Timothy Steinhauer
Subject: RE: double counting

Mr. Concerned Resident

The numbers Mr Mathews referenced are county reports and you may obtain them directly from the county. We also have copies which you may request through RTK. The forms are on our website.

Note that the reports were used to ESTIMATE potential reductions in assessment in a proposed budget document. Those numbers and other projections of revenue change frequently as updated information becomes available and will change again before our final budget is approved by the Board next month.

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

From: Mr. Concerned Resident
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2014 12:05 PM
To: Jan Klein
Cc: Dr. Timothy Steinhauer
Subject: RE: double counting

Jan,

Thank you for your reply, I appreciate the information.

With your explanation on estimates which I know will fluctuate between now and then, are you answering my question as to whether Mr. Matthews was accurate in his statements that there was evidence of double counting of properties that were in the appeal process?

Let me ask again…was Mr. Matthews accurate in his thinking and numbers by coming to a conclusion that double counting of properties currently under appeal existed when Mt. Lebanon created their current budget?

Thank you Jan,

C.R.

From: Jan Klein [mailto:JKlein@mtlsd.net]
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2014 3:05 PM
To: Mr. Concerned Resident
Cc: Dr. Timothy Steinhauer
Subject: RE: double counting

I do not verify Mr Mathews’ numbers.

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

$36 million in double counting UPDATED 3X

Last night, Bill Matthews hit one out of the ball park. He has identified $36 million in double counting in the budget. The following combines Bill's comments in the beginning of the meeting and at the end of the meeting. Bill identified specific Board of Viewers cases which are duplicates. PLEASE take the time to listen to his comments.




Update April 16, 2014 2:51 PM The following update is from Bill Matthews:

The “double counting” relates to the properties in our community that are currently under appeal with the County. Recently, Dr. Steinhauer reported to the board and our community that these properties totaled about $214 million. The district assumes this collective valuation may be reduced by 20% by the time each of these cases reaches final adjudication. Appropriately, the district makes an allowance for successful appeals in preparing its annual budget.

Upon request, the district provided reports detailing the $214 million – by property. In the first 2 minutes of my review, I concluded there were cases counted twice by the district, and additionally, there were several individual properties with two cases pending, effectively resulting in double counting (counting the property valuation twice, once for each pending appeal).

My deduction is that at the point in time of the district’s calculation, the collective value of properties under appeal was $178 million; $36 million less what Dr. Steinhauer reported.

Because an allowance is only made for the value of successful appeals (20%) not the entire $36 million, about $7.3 million in additional property valuation may be included in our community tax base for budget purposes. This $7.3 million represents about $164 thousand in ultimate tax revenue not currently included in the district’s proposed budget.

In other words, adding back the $164 thousand in anticipated revenue would reduce the millage increase required to balance the budget from the proposed .54 mills to .48 mills; a reduction of more than 10%.

Update April 17, 2014 9:34 AM Elaine Cappucci asks Jan Klein about the budget and double counting prior to the Proposed Budget vote on April 15, 2014.




Update April 17, 2014 10:57 AM The entire April 15, 2014 School Board Meeting podcast is available on my website, Lebo Citizens.