From the BCCT.
Commissioners trade barbs on budget cuts
Diane Marseglia’s suggestion to cut 2 percent was called “arbitrary” and “haphazard” by the other commissioners.
By JENNA PORTNOY
Increased pension and health care costs make up most of Bucks County’s $7.1 million budget shortfall.
The county expects to spend $6.6 million for pension costs next year, which is more than twice the $2.8 million spent this year, said Brian Hessenthaler, director of finance and administration. Health care increases represent another $3 million hit.
“Everyone knows what’s going on with the economy,” he said. “It’s affecting every area of the budget.”
No members of the public attended a budget hearing Monday, but commissioners traded barbs on ways to cut costs in the $465.6 million spending plan anyway.
Commissioner Diane Marseglia said the county could slash $3.6 million if commissioners mandated departments cut 2 percent in all areas, excluding salaries and contractual obligations. She cited “paper use, education costs, conference attendance and consultants” as examples of places to save.
“Within that 2 percent, you might hit walls,” she said before the meeting. “But everyone can find 2 percent. It’s only two cents out of every dollar.”
During the discussion, Commissioner Cawley quizzed Marseglia on her basis for coming up with the figure, calling the suggestion “haphazard.”
“You really believe we’re going to save $3.6 million in pencils?” he asked Marseglia.
Commissioner Charley Martin called Marsgelia’s cost-cutting strategy “arbitrary.”
At a Dec. 3 commissioners meeting, Martin suggested eliminating two elected jury commissioners, who each earn about $18,000 a year plus benefits. Commissioners directed solicitor Glenn Haines to research the issue by Dec. 17. If possible, the earliest the change could affect the budget is 2010.
Asked for other ideas, Martin said, “I’ll share my ideas with the finance director.”
Among Marseglia’s remaining $400,000 in cost-cutting measures, she said the county should cut $61,800 for a public records officer, $160,000 for two newsletters as well as benefits to assistant solicitors and solicitors who serve row officers. She wants pay raises for non-union employees to drop from 3 percent to about 2.8 percent.
Cawley said any reduction or elimination of raises should occur across the board.
“If we are truly in this together,” she said, “what’s good for the non-represented employees should be good for the represented employees as well.”
Cawley said row officers rely heavily on their solicitors and suggested it would cost more to pay them per hour than it does to pay them a flat salary plus benefits. On hiring a full-time employee to comply with the state’s new Right to Know law, he said, it doesn’t look like the position is necessary.
Cawley said the county will put into a general pool some cars assigned to employees 24/7 and realize long-term savings with structured maintenance. He declined to name specific employees or reveal how much the moves would save.
If commissioners were to fill the entire budget gap with a tax increase, a resident owning property assessed at the county average of $35,942 would pay $33 more this year for a total county tax bill of $882.
Hessenthaler said departments will continue to try to save money and the county could dip into its $71.3 million rainy day fund. Typically, rating agencies frown upon such a move, but the financial crisis could change their outlook.
The budget must also account for an estimated $4.6 million in delinquent taxes, a $400,000 decrease in recorder of deeds fees, a $600,000 reduction in health department revenue, a $900,000 loss in interest earned on the rainy day fund and $1.2 million in unforeseen union contract obligations.
Marseglia said the county should only tap the rainy day fund for pension costs and state funding cuts, which county officials expect Gov. Ed Rendell to announce this week.
The tax rate remained at 21.9 mills in 2007 and 2008 and would increase by less than 1 mill in 2009 if the preliminary budget were to pass as is. A mill is a tax of $1 on every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.
“In this economic climate, it would be extremely wrong-headed to raise taxes on people who are already suffering,” Cawley said after the meeting.
Commissioners are scheduled to vote on a final budget Dec. 17.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Neshaminy: Tax hike ‘inevitable’
From the BCCT.
What's the Morrisville budget like?
District official: Tax hike ‘inevitable’
By REGIS D’ANGIOLINI
The financial outlook for the Neshaminy School District is bleak.
That was the picture business administrator Joseph Paradise painted at Monday night’s board strategic action committee meeting — a meeting that also saw presentations on the proposed fullday kindergarten program and the relocation of the Tawanka Learning Center.
While real estate tax collection in the district remains high, according to Paradise, the amount of revenue generated from the real estate transfer tax, the business privilege tax and the mercantile tax are all down. As a result, anticipated revenue for tax collection in the district could be one half of one percent — or $500,000 — lower than what was anticipated as early as last spring.
“We [in the Neshaminy School District] are not isolated from the larger economic crisis involving our country,” Paradise said.
When asked whether this would result in a property tax increase in next year’s budget, Paradise responded that such an increase would be “inevitable.” He would not give a figure, but said that the amount would be determined in budget development meetings slated to begin in January, although the district has already been working on the budget.
A major concern of his at the present time, however, is the district’s depleted fund balance, which has been dipped into during the past few years, he said. Three years ago the fund balance was $13.6 million, but as of last June it had been reduced to $4.8 million, with another $3.5 million scheduled to be used in this year’s budget.
“These are scary numbers to me — when you start putting together declining savings and sliding revenue,” he said.
Money could be made up by selling the closed Eisenhower Elementary School, which hasn’t been used as an elementary school by the district in 32 years, Paradise said.
However, one of the proposals on the table for relocating the Tawanka Learning Center is to the Eisenhower Elementary School. That move would cost the district $116,000, while the proposal to move it to an unused wing of the high school would cost $62,000, Paradise said. Both proposals were presented to the board, which is expected to continue discussing the issue at its Jan. 13 work session.
January will also see the continuation of the full-day kindergarten proposal outlined Monday night by Jaqueline Rattigan, director of elementary education. Rattigan estimated the cost at $1.3 million and said it would require the hiring of 17 more teachers and the utilization of 17 additional classrooms to serve an estimated 532 students.
In order to reduce costs, Rattigan said she will investigate a possible pilot program at the suggestion of several board members.
Prior to the committee meeting, the board elected Kim Koutsouradis as its new vice president in a 5-4 vote at the continuation of it reorganization meeting.
What's the Morrisville budget like?
District official: Tax hike ‘inevitable’
By REGIS D’ANGIOLINI
The financial outlook for the Neshaminy School District is bleak.
That was the picture business administrator Joseph Paradise painted at Monday night’s board strategic action committee meeting — a meeting that also saw presentations on the proposed fullday kindergarten program and the relocation of the Tawanka Learning Center.
While real estate tax collection in the district remains high, according to Paradise, the amount of revenue generated from the real estate transfer tax, the business privilege tax and the mercantile tax are all down. As a result, anticipated revenue for tax collection in the district could be one half of one percent — or $500,000 — lower than what was anticipated as early as last spring.
“We [in the Neshaminy School District] are not isolated from the larger economic crisis involving our country,” Paradise said.
When asked whether this would result in a property tax increase in next year’s budget, Paradise responded that such an increase would be “inevitable.” He would not give a figure, but said that the amount would be determined in budget development meetings slated to begin in January, although the district has already been working on the budget.
A major concern of his at the present time, however, is the district’s depleted fund balance, which has been dipped into during the past few years, he said. Three years ago the fund balance was $13.6 million, but as of last June it had been reduced to $4.8 million, with another $3.5 million scheduled to be used in this year’s budget.
“These are scary numbers to me — when you start putting together declining savings and sliding revenue,” he said.
Money could be made up by selling the closed Eisenhower Elementary School, which hasn’t been used as an elementary school by the district in 32 years, Paradise said.
However, one of the proposals on the table for relocating the Tawanka Learning Center is to the Eisenhower Elementary School. That move would cost the district $116,000, while the proposal to move it to an unused wing of the high school would cost $62,000, Paradise said. Both proposals were presented to the board, which is expected to continue discussing the issue at its Jan. 13 work session.
January will also see the continuation of the full-day kindergarten proposal outlined Monday night by Jaqueline Rattigan, director of elementary education. Rattigan estimated the cost at $1.3 million and said it would require the hiring of 17 more teachers and the utilization of 17 additional classrooms to serve an estimated 532 students.
In order to reduce costs, Rattigan said she will investigate a possible pilot program at the suggestion of several board members.
Prior to the committee meeting, the board elected Kim Koutsouradis as its new vice president in a 5-4 vote at the continuation of it reorganization meeting.
Selecting the Next Secretary of Education
From the Inquirer.
Obama education pick sparks conflict
The Associated Press, Posted on Mon, Dec. 8, 2008
WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama has not signaled what he will do to fix the country's failing schools, but his choice of education secretary will say a lot about the policies he may pursue.
Debate is simmering among Democrats over whom Obama should name.
Teachers' unions, an influential segment of the party base, want an advocate for their members, someone like Obama adviser Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University professor, or Inez Tenenbaum, the former state schools chief in South Carolina.
Reform advocates want someone like New York schools chancellor Joel Klein, who wants teachers and schools held accountable for the performance of students.
Thus far Obama has avoided taking sides, saying things that reassure the competing factions. Obama has said, for instance, that teacher pay should be tied to student achievement, which reformers like, but not solely based on test scores, which teachers like.
Unions, by the way, dislike the "reformer" label, pointing out they want reform, too. And the reform group says it cares about good teachers; it just wants bad ones out of the classroom.
"He's a wise man," said Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, chuckling. "He left himself some room to maneuver."
Bayh, a Democratic centrist who backed the No Child Left Behind law, thinks Obama will find a way to straddle the competing factions. "My strong impression of the president-elect is he is pragmatic. He won't pick an ideologue. He won't pick a side in this fight."
Even so, Bayh expects Obama to choose someone the unions can live with to carry out his education goals.
"You probably don't get there by having an overt, in-your-face fight with classroom teachers," Bayh said. "That's going to take a lot of political capital and divert energy from other things."
Can Obama make both sides happy? Not likely, said Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina.
"I think it's almost an impossible pick to make and somebody not be upset," Burr said. "I'm not sure there's a candidate that bridges both divides."
One candidate might fit the bill , Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan, who has spent seven years running the country's third-largest school district.
Duncan is friendly with the president-elect, playing pickup basketball as well as touring schools with the former Illinois senator and fellow Harvard alumnus. Duncan visited Washington last week, stopping for coffee with outgoing Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, but he said the visit was purely social and had nothing to do with the Obama transition.
Like Obama, Duncan has straddled both education factions, signing manifestos from each side earlier this year.
The reform group likes Duncan's work in Chicago, where he has focused on improving struggling schools, closing those that fail and getting better teachers.
And unlike Klein or Washington schools chief Michelle Rhee, Duncan has managed to avoid alienating the teachers' unions.
"Arne Duncan actually reaches out and tries to do things in a collaborative way," said Randi Weingarten, head of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers.
Weingarten also heads the New York teachers union, whose members felt demonized in their contract battles with Klein. The 3.2 million-member National Education Association shares their view.
"Joel Klein is not someone we would be happy with as secretary of education," NEA lobbyist Joel Packer said. "I don't think Obama is going to pick someone who's going to be really divisive."
Darling-Hammond, the Obama adviser who is heading his education transition team, is equally controversial. The reform group doesn't like her because of her criticism of No Child Left Behind and her early critique of Teach for America, which pairs college graduates with a school-in-need for two years, although she has since given the program credit for attracting talented teachers.
Both unions have said they like the idea of Obama choosing a governor or former governor. There are many to choose from, including former Gov. Roy Barnes of Georgia. Kansas' Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, whose name had been floated for several Cabinet posts, announced over the weekend that she had removed herself from consideration from a Cabinet job in the Obama administration, citing Kansas' budget problems that need her attention.
The names of former Mississippi Govs. Ray Mabus and Ronnie Musgrove have also surfaced; several people said Musgrove has talked to Democratic senators about the job, but he did not return a call from The Associated Press.
AFT backed Obama's rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the primary, and NEA held off on an endorsement, but in the general election both endorsed Obama and spent millions of dollars supporting him.
In the education debate, the competing sides break down over the degree to which teachers and schools should be held accountable for how kids are learning, and the role test scores should play in making that determination.
At the heart of the dispute: No Child Left Behind, the law that has grown as unpopular as George W. Bush, the lame-duck president who championed it.
The reform group agrees with the law's general principle of penalties for schools if test scores fail to improve. Although nearly everyone agrees the law has problems that need fixing.
The union coalition says test scores aren't the only measure, and that factors far beyond the classroom affect how well kids learn.
Obama education pick sparks conflict
The Associated Press, Posted on Mon, Dec. 8, 2008
WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama has not signaled what he will do to fix the country's failing schools, but his choice of education secretary will say a lot about the policies he may pursue.
Debate is simmering among Democrats over whom Obama should name.
Teachers' unions, an influential segment of the party base, want an advocate for their members, someone like Obama adviser Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University professor, or Inez Tenenbaum, the former state schools chief in South Carolina.
Reform advocates want someone like New York schools chancellor Joel Klein, who wants teachers and schools held accountable for the performance of students.
Thus far Obama has avoided taking sides, saying things that reassure the competing factions. Obama has said, for instance, that teacher pay should be tied to student achievement, which reformers like, but not solely based on test scores, which teachers like.
Unions, by the way, dislike the "reformer" label, pointing out they want reform, too. And the reform group says it cares about good teachers; it just wants bad ones out of the classroom.
"He's a wise man," said Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, chuckling. "He left himself some room to maneuver."
Bayh, a Democratic centrist who backed the No Child Left Behind law, thinks Obama will find a way to straddle the competing factions. "My strong impression of the president-elect is he is pragmatic. He won't pick an ideologue. He won't pick a side in this fight."
Even so, Bayh expects Obama to choose someone the unions can live with to carry out his education goals.
"You probably don't get there by having an overt, in-your-face fight with classroom teachers," Bayh said. "That's going to take a lot of political capital and divert energy from other things."
Can Obama make both sides happy? Not likely, said Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina.
"I think it's almost an impossible pick to make and somebody not be upset," Burr said. "I'm not sure there's a candidate that bridges both divides."
One candidate might fit the bill , Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan, who has spent seven years running the country's third-largest school district.
Duncan is friendly with the president-elect, playing pickup basketball as well as touring schools with the former Illinois senator and fellow Harvard alumnus. Duncan visited Washington last week, stopping for coffee with outgoing Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, but he said the visit was purely social and had nothing to do with the Obama transition.
Like Obama, Duncan has straddled both education factions, signing manifestos from each side earlier this year.
The reform group likes Duncan's work in Chicago, where he has focused on improving struggling schools, closing those that fail and getting better teachers.
And unlike Klein or Washington schools chief Michelle Rhee, Duncan has managed to avoid alienating the teachers' unions.
"Arne Duncan actually reaches out and tries to do things in a collaborative way," said Randi Weingarten, head of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers.
Weingarten also heads the New York teachers union, whose members felt demonized in their contract battles with Klein. The 3.2 million-member National Education Association shares their view.
"Joel Klein is not someone we would be happy with as secretary of education," NEA lobbyist Joel Packer said. "I don't think Obama is going to pick someone who's going to be really divisive."
Darling-Hammond, the Obama adviser who is heading his education transition team, is equally controversial. The reform group doesn't like her because of her criticism of No Child Left Behind and her early critique of Teach for America, which pairs college graduates with a school-in-need for two years, although she has since given the program credit for attracting talented teachers.
Both unions have said they like the idea of Obama choosing a governor or former governor. There are many to choose from, including former Gov. Roy Barnes of Georgia. Kansas' Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, whose name had been floated for several Cabinet posts, announced over the weekend that she had removed herself from consideration from a Cabinet job in the Obama administration, citing Kansas' budget problems that need her attention.
The names of former Mississippi Govs. Ray Mabus and Ronnie Musgrove have also surfaced; several people said Musgrove has talked to Democratic senators about the job, but he did not return a call from The Associated Press.
AFT backed Obama's rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the primary, and NEA held off on an endorsement, but in the general election both endorsed Obama and spent millions of dollars supporting him.
In the education debate, the competing sides break down over the degree to which teachers and schools should be held accountable for how kids are learning, and the role test scores should play in making that determination.
At the heart of the dispute: No Child Left Behind, the law that has grown as unpopular as George W. Bush, the lame-duck president who championed it.
The reform group agrees with the law's general principle of penalties for schools if test scores fail to improve. Although nearly everyone agrees the law has problems that need fixing.
The union coalition says test scores aren't the only measure, and that factors far beyond the classroom affect how well kids learn.
Poverty and Children's Literacy
Bipartisan Celebration at PA Society to Benefit Children's Literacy Programs
All funds raised will go to First Book to purchase new books for children in Pennsylvania
Last update: 12:18 p.m. EST Dec. 8, 2008
HARRISBURG, Pa., Dec 08, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- A fundraiser to help bring the magic of a child's first book to thousands of Pennsylvania children is being held for the first time this year as part of the annual Pennsylvania Society weekend.
Sponsored by the non-partisan Pennsylvania Children's Foundation, the First Annual Holiday Celebration on December 12 will benefit First Book, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to expand children's access to books in order to improve their literacy skills and help them develop an interest in reading.
Governors Ed Rendell and Tom Ridge; U.S. Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey; Ambassador Marilyn Ware; and Mayors Michael Nutter and Luke Ravenstahl are chairing the First Annual Holiday Celebration. Other elected officials and state leaders are hosting the event.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, 18% of Pennsylvania children under the age of six live in poverty and children in more than two-thirds of the state are at moderate or high risk of school failure. Studies show that children from low-income families enter school at a significant disadvantage because they have not been exposed to books at home and over 80% of preschool and after-school programs serving low-income children have no age-appropriate books. As a result, the gap in reading comprehension scores between children from low- and high-income families is more than 40 points and 27% of Pennsylvania fourth graders are reading below grade-level.
The Pennsylvania Children's Foundation was created this year to benefit children's literacy programs throughout the Commonwealth. All funds raised at the December 12 Holiday Celebration in New York City will be dedicated to First Book programs in Pennsylvania. First Book works with local Advisory Boards who reach children through literacy programs at Head Start centers, libraries, soup kitchens, churches, housing projects and after-school initiatives.
The First Annual Holiday Celebration will be held on Friday, Dec. 12, from 10:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. in the Empire Room of the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel in New York City. Tickets are $250 each and tax-deductible as a charitable contribution to First Book. Contact Karen Walsh at 717-982-8194 or kwalsh@neimangroup.com for more information.
ABOUT FIRST BOOK -- First Book provides new books to children in need, addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy -- access to books. An innovative leader in social enterprise, First Book has distributed more than 60 million free and low-cost books in thousands of communities. First Book now has offices in the U.S. and Canada. For more information about the nonprofit First Book please visit http://www.firstbook.org or call 866-393-1222.
SOURCE Pennsylvania Children's Foundation
All funds raised will go to First Book to purchase new books for children in Pennsylvania
Last update: 12:18 p.m. EST Dec. 8, 2008
HARRISBURG, Pa., Dec 08, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- A fundraiser to help bring the magic of a child's first book to thousands of Pennsylvania children is being held for the first time this year as part of the annual Pennsylvania Society weekend.
Sponsored by the non-partisan Pennsylvania Children's Foundation, the First Annual Holiday Celebration on December 12 will benefit First Book, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to expand children's access to books in order to improve their literacy skills and help them develop an interest in reading.
Governors Ed Rendell and Tom Ridge; U.S. Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey; Ambassador Marilyn Ware; and Mayors Michael Nutter and Luke Ravenstahl are chairing the First Annual Holiday Celebration. Other elected officials and state leaders are hosting the event.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, 18% of Pennsylvania children under the age of six live in poverty and children in more than two-thirds of the state are at moderate or high risk of school failure. Studies show that children from low-income families enter school at a significant disadvantage because they have not been exposed to books at home and over 80% of preschool and after-school programs serving low-income children have no age-appropriate books. As a result, the gap in reading comprehension scores between children from low- and high-income families is more than 40 points and 27% of Pennsylvania fourth graders are reading below grade-level.
The Pennsylvania Children's Foundation was created this year to benefit children's literacy programs throughout the Commonwealth. All funds raised at the December 12 Holiday Celebration in New York City will be dedicated to First Book programs in Pennsylvania. First Book works with local Advisory Boards who reach children through literacy programs at Head Start centers, libraries, soup kitchens, churches, housing projects and after-school initiatives.
The First Annual Holiday Celebration will be held on Friday, Dec. 12, from 10:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. in the Empire Room of the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel in New York City. Tickets are $250 each and tax-deductible as a charitable contribution to First Book. Contact Karen Walsh at 717-982-8194 or kwalsh@neimangroup.com for more information.
ABOUT FIRST BOOK -- First Book provides new books to children in need, addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy -- access to books. An innovative leader in social enterprise, First Book has distributed more than 60 million free and low-cost books in thousands of communities. First Book now has offices in the U.S. and Canada. For more information about the nonprofit First Book please visit http://www.firstbook.org or call 866-393-1222.
SOURCE Pennsylvania Children's Foundation
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