Capitol Rotunda - Facing House Chamber

State Rep. Puts School Districts on Notice

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Department of Education data show Pennsylvania school districts had a combined $3.2-billion dollars in reserve funds as of the end of last school year.  Taxpayers deserve an explanation, according to State Rep. Mike Vereb (R-Montgomery).  “The people on these school boards that are holding on to these pots of money need to come clean with the taxpayers that they are about to jump into their pockets and raid one more time,” Vereb said at a capitol news conference on Monday. 

Vereb rattled off a list of the districts with the most cash in the bank.  He says it’s ludicrous for school districts to propose property tax hikes and point their fingers at Harrisburg while holding onto vast reserves.   

But much of the money represents school districts’ attempts to help smooth out the looming pension spikes that are legislatively mandated, according Dave Davare, director of research services at the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA). 

Speaking to Radio PA Davare rattled off his own list of school districts that are, in fact, tapping their reserve funds in order to balance FY 2013 budgets.  The PSBA advises school districts to use reserve funds as one-time revenue streams for one-time expenses.  “When a district uses its fund balance to pay for teachers’ salaries so they don’t have to lay off teachers this year, that just means next year when they don’t have that fund balance, they’re going to have to lay off teachers at that point,” Davare explains.   

Rep. Vereb says the rule of thumb is that schools’ reserve funds should be 5 -7% of their operating budgets.  He’s looking into possible legislative action.

Homes, Homeowners, Properties, Neighborhood

Property Tax Elimination to be Discussed at Capitol Hearing

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Taxpayer groups from across Pennsylvania are rallying behind the latest attempt to abolish burdensome school property taxes.  The newly-introduced Property Tax Independence Act would replace homeowners’ most dreaded bill with a one percentage point increase in the state sales tax, a broadening of the sales tax base, and a hike of the personal income tax from 3.07 – 4%.

It’s a dollar-for-dollar tax shift, and the bill’s author says the number of losers is extremely small.  “What this does is shift the [school funding] burden off the backs of six million property owners, up to the shoulders of 12-million sales tax payers,” state Rep. Jim Cox (R-Berks) tells Radio PA.  “Everyone pays the sales tax.  How much is largely up to them, but everybody pays the sales tax.”

One difference between HB 1776 and previous attempts to thwart the local property tax is the unprecedented level of input it received from Pennsylvania taxpayers.  In fact, the Property Tax Independence Act has the backing of 72-taxpayer groups.

“This is about all homeowners who are suffering under the burden of school property taxes,” says Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations spokesman David Baldinger.  “In some areas of the state, the monthly property tax escrow can be equal to the mortgage itself.”

Baldinger is among the testifiers scheduled to address the state House Finance Committee on Monday morning.  While enactment of such a dramatic change would be nothing short of monumental, Rep. Cox believes he already has enough votes to advance the bill out of committee and to the House floor.

HB 1776 has 70-cosponsors, 50-Republicans and 20-Democrats.  There’s also a companion bill in the Senate.

RadioPA Roundtable

Radio PA Roundtable 05.18.12

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Radio PA Roundtable is a 30-minute program featuring in-depth reporting on the top news stories of the week. Professionally produced and delivered every Friday, Roundtable includes commercial breaks for local sale and quarterly reports for affiliate files.

Click the audio player below to hear the full broadcast:

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/witfaudio/radiopa/Roundtable05-18-12.mp3]

Two Named to PA’s Middle District Bench

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President Barack Obama has announced two appointments to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. the names of Matthew W. Brann and Judge Malachy Edward Mannion were released by the White House late Thursday.

Brann is a partner at the law firm of Brann, Williams Caldwell & Sheetz, where he specializes in tort, contract, commercial and property litigation. Judge Mannion has spent 11 years as a Magistrate Judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and was also an Assistant U.S. Attorney for 15 years prior to that appointment to the bench.

In a statement issued by the White House, President Obama said “I am pleased to nominate these distinguished individuals to serve on the United States District Court bench. I am confident they will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice.”

Both nominations require U.S. Senate confirmations.

 

Cooperative Extension Restructuring Underway

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Cooperative Extension offices will remain in all 67-counties, according to Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences Dean Bruce McPheron.  It’s the administrative functions of those offices that will now be streamlined into 19 new districts.

“We had more than 50 Extension directors, administrators across the state,” McPheron tells Radio PA.  “This change alone resulted in more than 30 positions going from a primarily administrative role back to a primarily education role.” 

The restructuring is being driven by the need to keep the Cooperative Extension relevant in the information age, and financial pressures from all budget sources.  Over the past three years, the College of Agricultural Sciences has seen its funding cut by $18.5-million dollars.  Including Cooperative Extension, the college has lost about 200 of their 850 employees over that time. 

Dr. Bruce McPheron

“Our goal is to be able to continue to provide high-quality answers to folks who need that information, based upon the great science that we do here on campus,” McPheron says. 

Cooperative Extension offers educational programming and consultation to Pennsylvania residents on both agricultural and environmental issues. 

Governor Tom Corbett’s latest budget proposals would provide level funding to Extension and agricultural research by tapping the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development Fund.  It’s a potential change that’s already sparked debate under the capitol dome.

Voices for Victims Delivers Letters, Still Collecting Messages

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Voices for Victims

You can link to the Voices for Victims Facebook page below.

A student-led campaign is delivering letters of support to the alleged victims in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.  “Many of us have not forgotten about them, many of us do care,” says Voices for Victims project leader Matt Bodenschatz, who believes the alleged victims should not be lost in the scandal just because they are anonymous. 

“If you think about it, in today’s world we rarely send letters to our friends, let alone to take that action out of empathy and support and thanks from thousands of miles away,” Bodenschatz explains.  The letters the campaign’s already received have come from as nearby as the Penn State campus to as far away as Croatia. 

Bodenschatz has already delivered scores of letters to the attorneys for the alleged victims, but stresses their work is not done.  As a victim of child sex abuse himself, Bodenschatz tells Radio PA that a heartfelt message can have a profound impact.  “When I held it in my hands… tears were brought to my own eyes.” 

Voices for Victims has taken down the drop boxes they had placed around the campus and town, but are still accepting correspondence electronically and through the US Mail.  With the trial looming, they believe the alleged victims will be in need of another showing of support. 

Bodenschatz is often asked for advice on what to write.  “Really what people are often looking for is reassurance that what is coming from your heart is so very, very likely the right thing.” 

Sandusky’s trial on 52-counts of alleged abuse is currently scheduled to begin next month.  He has denied any criminal wrongdoing.

Think Tanks at Odds over Liquor Store Privatization Research

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Leaders of the Keystone Research Center say their latest policy brief is meant to ‘set the record straight.’  They claim the Commonwealth Foundation has muddied the waters of the public policy debate with earlier research that claims to find no relationship between alcohol control and DUI fatality rates.

“Previous research had often included two variables that were absent from the [Commonwealth Foundation] model,” says Keystone Research Center Labor Economist Mark Price.  “Those variables were per capita incomes and per capital miles traveled.”

When he re-ran the numbers to account for those two variables, Price found that Pennsylvania has an estimated 58 fewer DUI fatalities a year because it controls alcohol at the retail and wholesale levels. 

The Keystone Research Center believes policymakers must carefully consider the impact privatization could have on alcohol-related fatalities.  But, the Commonwealth Foundation contends the KRC is trying to add more variables to explain away the facts. 

“There really is no difference between states that have government control of liquor sales and states that have private stores,” says Nathan Benefield, director of policy research at the Commonwealth Foundation. 

In testimony presented to the House Democratic Policy Committee, last year, Benefield also cited Mothers Against Drunk Driving data that ranks Pennsylvania 30th among states for its per capita DUI-related accidents.  He argued that if liquor control were such a driving factor, Pennsylvania should have ranked much higher on that list (with 1 being the state with the fewest DUI accidents).    

While there seem to be conflicting studies on the social impacts of privatization, supporters’ maintain that Pennsylvania should not be in the booze business.

Child Abuse Panel Hears Recommendations from Two Prosecutors

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Two assistant district attorneys who prosecute child abuse cases brought their ideas to a panel that’s reviewing Pennsylvania’s child protection laws and procedures for reporting child abuse.   The Task Force on Child Protection is holding a series of hearings and must issue a final report by the end of November.

Sean McCormack thinks the state’s mandated reporting law needs more teeth. The chief of the Dauphin County Child Abuse Prosecutions unit says the penalty should be as serious as the offense against the child.   For example, if someone fails to report the  rape of a child, he believes that violating the mandated reporting act should be a felony of the first degree. He says the current penalty is a slap on the wrist, a misdemeanor of the third degree.

 McCormack says the child protective services law and the crimes code use different language, leading to communication barriers between prosecutors,  and children and youth workers.  He adds that caseworkers are not required to report certain situations to law enforcement, such as child endangerment and simple assault. He says we need to take down these barriers.

McCormack recommends good quality training for mandated reporters, starting even at the college level when they are still students.  He also suggested a child advocacy license plate to help raise money for training or supporting Children’s Advocacy Centers.  He says Pennsylvania has sports teams, colleges and all sorts of groups that are getting money from license plates.

Edward McCann, First Assistant District Attorney for Philadelphia County, told the panel there should be a process to ensure that children who are home schooled receive the same oversight as children attending public, private and parochial schools, especially if their family has a history with child protective services.