Posted on 05/07/2005 1:48:41 PM PDT by Tribune7
The Marple Newtown School Board unanimously approved a preliminary budget April 26 for the 2005-2006 school year in the amount of $52,919,000. This includes a tax levy of 13.67 mills or 0.1367 of assessed value or real estate and a levy of one-half of one percent tax on real estate transfers within the school district.
Prior to the vote Newtown resident Ray Euler voiced opposition to a 4.19 percent tax increase. He said if the motion passed that it would mean there has been a 31 percent increase in school taxes over the last five years. His statement that he does not want a tax increase drew a round of applause from the audience.
(Excerpt) Read more at zwire.com ...
The tax increases are pretty much the same throughout my county.
What are we getting out of it? The schools are arguably worse than they were five years ago much less 20 years ago.
School boards are basically powerless, fyi. State law makes it so that every contract dispute the union wins & mandates mean sending growth for which our legislature can duck blame. And it is our legislature that is truely at fault. If your upset about the tax hike let your school board know but don't pound them. Pound your senator & representative.
ping
I suspect this applies to the state. I'm sure it applies to Delaware County.
How long is America going to let public employee unions use the schools as a cash cow, all the while claiming it's "for the children"?
31%!! Maybe we should call this the "illegal alien" tax.
Don't blame you but you are going to have a long commute.
Illegals don't have much to do with it. It's the PSEA and meatheads in the legislature.
Money stolen from taxpayers for "public education" goes right into the coffers of the Democrats.
We are in Coatesville District and paying almost 3%. 0.298. We cannot recall school board members, nor can we vote on tax increases. There is no cap on the tax percentage as in other states. Theoretically, our tax rate could rise to 5, 10, 20 percent per year. Last year our school board proposed a 23% increase, but settled on a 10% increase, which is their usual bait and switch game so we wind up happy we just got the 10%.
Until last year, I had a nine minute train ride to Penn, with a few-hundred-foot walk on each end. Now I work in Berwyn, and while it's 16 miles from Lansdowne, it's an hour drive at rush hour. The other day I drove the 25 miles from Berwyn to Gilbertsville, at rush hour, in 45 minutes. Not a great commute, but it's worth the drive, and I can't afford to live much closer to Berwyn anyway.
It really should be illegal to unionize in the government or in regulated monopolies.
In the free market there is natural checks and balances.. The teacher's are getting ridiculus in their pay when you factor in how few hours a day they work, how many weeks vacation a year, health benefits.. and the big one, their incredible full pensions with early retirement.
There is school districts I have been reading about, where 50% of the salaries going to teachers each year.. go to retired teachers. That is insane! And lets not even get into the fact about how poorly they are doing at actually TEACHING! People in the private sector doing as poorly as our public administrators and others would simply be fired, not even a pay cut.
That makes sense. I was going to say Berks County to Penn commute might not be worth the tax savings.
"Money stolen from taxpayers for "public education" goes right into the coffers of the Democrats."
Government employees are the main base of the Democrat party.
Ditto that, but it's even worse concerning Pa. schools. You CAN'T FIRE teachers when they strike, or work to the letter of their contract which means they don't do a lot of the duties that are expected of teachers.
Why do I think that most of this money is going into teachers' benefits via the union?
We need school choice and voucher right now!
Because it does!
We need school choice and voucher right now!
Exactly!!
Home schooling is becoming another option.
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