I'm going to throw this out and see if anyone might pick it up and run with it. I've received several emails mentioning a school renovations questionnaire but I have not seen anything definitive about it and no one will speak on the record about it. I've been told that it was presented to a select few and that the questions are somewhat misleading and intentionally steer the respondent into providing the responses desired.
That however, is not a problem. I expect the results of any survey requested of this board to be spun and presented in the direction desired. Before anyone quacks at me about saying this, this criticism is a blanket observation for any elected official or group. However, my trust level with the Stop the School people's board has eroded with each royal pronouncement from the Emperor's lips.
I've also been told that it contains egregious spelling errors and is formatted in a manner that is amateurish in general, but is doubly embarrassing as a representation of a school system.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Haven't seen it, and don't expect it will go to anyone not "on the inside" with this group. The inclusion of the errors at least tells us that they may have written it themselves. It is sad when anyone can see we have illiterate people filling seats as School Directors.
Below is 1 of 2 gems in this morning's Courier Times. Perhaps some house picketing is in order?
Residents urged to report missing tax bills
By DANNY ADLER
Bucks County Courier Times
MORRISVILLE - Complaints by Morrisville taxpayers that they never received their county/borough and school tax bills in the mail more than doubled in 2007, according to Morrisville's tax collector.
And, of course, residents aren't too happy when the tax office notifies them that they have just two or three weeks to pay their bills before facing penalty fees of up to 10 percent, she said.
“They are really super upset, because some of these people would have paid on discount,” tax collector Pat Pordash said, referring to the discount given to early payers. “Taxes are high enough.”
In 2006, the tax collector said, close to 100 people said they never received their county/borough and school tax bills in the mail. In 2007, more than 100 said they didn't get their county/borough bills and more than 160 said they never received their school tax bills.
Pordash admits that some people might use the I-never-got-it excuse to save face, but the growing number of people saying they didn't get a bill is becoming a problem. “All I want is for these people to get their tax bills. It's important,” she said.
Since Morrisville doesn't send tax bills by registered or certified mail, the U.S. Postal Service has no way to find missing or undelivered mail.
Cathy Yarosky, a Postal Service spokeswoman, admits that some mail gets lost because of the sheer number of items handled. In the Philadelphia area, about 10.2 million pieces of mail are delivered daily; nationwide, about 700 million. But Yarosky says it's “unheard of” for that much mail in one town to go undelivered.
“Two hundred sixty is a tremendously high number,” Yarosky said. “That's like losing an elephant.”
She said that supervisors at Morrisville's post office are unaware of any complaints from people who say they haven't been getting their tax bills.
Pordash urged property owners to call the tax office by March 5 if they haven't received their county or borough tax bills and by July 5 if they haven't received school tax bills. Pordash can be reached at 215-295-2274.
Mark your calendars
Property owners should know when to expect their local tax bills, according to Morrisville tax collector Pat Pordash. They should mark their calendars to call her by March 5 if county and borough tax bills haven't arrived and by July 5 if school tax bills haven't been received. Her number is 215-295-2274.
Danny Adler can be reached at 215-949-4205 or dadler@phillyBurbs.com.
Gem #2 from someone who apparently wouldn't know tyranny if it was growing like alien yuppie vegetation through the flooded-out remains of her Yardley house, for which she is seeking a taxpayer-funded buyout.
Heroic and wise
Thumbs down to the Courier Times for its subversion of the miracle of democracy that happened in Morrisville when its residents, following the true meaning of Summerseat, the Revolutionary-era mansion in the center of town, rose up against a tyrannical school board president who treated our people like dirt!
And now, this same person claims from “exile” that she overheard an opponent of her agenda make a racist remark over a year ago.
Last year, under her leadership, the old Morrisville school board sent out feelers to Pennsbury about taking our students. This was reported in the Courier. Now the paper screams foul that the new board has contacted other school districts.
What would Morrisville's home and business owners do now if that unnecessary new school had been approved and taxes thus rose astronomically while the present mortgage/economic crisis happening?
We should applaud the heroism and common sense wisdom of Morrisville and its new school board for saving our town from complete catastrophe!
Gloria del Vecchio
Morrisville
Yuppie scum it is too--that would condemn someone for losing their home to a flood.
Sounds like the yuppies are squealing in desperation and showing their true colors of elitist greed and gross insensitivity to the suffering of others.
Wonder if you would also whine about the victims of Katrina?
Sea walls, dunes, levies and the dike in Morrisville--all paid for by the taxpayer. Also paid for by the taxpayer---all public infrastructure to accomodate Toll Bros atrocities destroying the landscape both environmentally and aethetically--which contribute to local flodding problems.
I was unaware that the Depression-era Works Progress Administration time traveled to ensure that a taxpayer financed dike would be created to accommodate Toll Brothers. Sounds like FDR was a man ahead of his time, so to speak.
I didn't know we had a flodding problem? I've never seen a flod before, and wouldn't know one if I saw it.
It's interesting to blame all of this on Toll Brothers (surely there are several other big developers that could be blamed as well, Hovnanian, Orleans, Ryland...).
But seriously, it's not Bruce Toll's fault. If you think about it you will realize that it is Al Gore's fault. He's the one who melted the polar ice caps causing all of the flooding in Morrisville (and New Orleans also).
And how do you think the Eskimo's feel about that. I mean it's one thing to have your house flooded in Yardley, quite another to have your igloo melted!
Somebody forgot to put on their tinfoil helemet methinks. Toll Brothers is the reason for civic infrastructure improvements? Whatever argument you were trying to make was undermined by your ludicrous correlation of public works and private development. The only reason anyone poked fun at Ms. DelVecchio is that she lobs her shots at whomever she likes, and meanwhile she has her hand out for the dole. If anyone else benefits at the public expense, she expresses outrage, but since she was victimized, it's OK for her to get government money? Why didn't she have flood insurance if she lived in a floodplain? Now it's our responsibility to pay for her negligence? No one condemned her for suffering from the flood. She is reviled for her blatant hypocrisy.
In all the excitement about yuppies, floods, Eskimos, and dikes, I think we lost sight of the growing realization that our tax collector is in way over her chapeaux-equipped noggin.
I know I was one of apparently hundreds whose taxes were goofed in 2007, and it's sounding like 2008 is shaping up to be a banner year too. If you would have paid on the 2% discount, but end up paying the 2% late fee due to delays in receiving your bill, you could be facing a 4% tax increase through no fault of your own. Not good. Heck, that's almost again as high as the 4.4% increase the board recently capped itself at by resolution (another topic entirely).
I'm sorry, but I don't think the problem is the US Mail, or everyone pretending they didn't get their bills. This is a job that should be relatively seamless and it's not.
What can we do?
There is no law that requires the position of "Tax Collector". Get rid of the position and have a lock box. Then Human error is reduced.
Jon, "A structure with an alternative lifestyle choice" is the politically correct term for the large earthen berm along the river in town. PLease be more sensitive!!
Post a Comment