Posted on 11/08/2012 9:32:22 PM PST by george76
The Philadelphia School Reform Commission moved Wednesday to borrow $300 million - money it needs just to pay teachers, heat buildings, and buy books for the rest of the school year.
Chairman Pedro Ramos made it clear that the SRC's back was to the wall and that the state of its finances constituted "dire circumstances" for the district.
"I couldn't be more unhappy that we're in a situation where it's necessary to do a borrowing for the purposes of merely paying our bills," Ramos said.
The bond sale the SRC unanimously authorized at the Wednesday special meeting comes with a hefty price tag - an additional $22 million in debt service annually for 20 years, beginning in 2014.
It's the second time in a decade the district has had to borrow money to keep schools open - the last deficit financing occurred in 2002 - and officials say the school system's credit card is maxed out.
...
Existing salary and benefit structures were agreed to "in high-revenue times," said Hite. "Now we don't have the ability to sustain that structure."
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Do what Kalifornia does. Raise taxes. It’s for the chilrun!
Of course it would never occur to them to cut the members of the Commission or reduce their salaries and overhead.....oh no.
Misnomer - borrow would imply it’s intended to be paid back.
1) Why wait until the end of the year?
2) Why borrow at all? Make cuts now!
3) Why spend $100M in interest to simply postpone by a year having to fire teachers and reduce benefits?
4) Do they really think they can afford current ops + $20M in additional interest a year or is this simply a scheme to intentionally default and expect the state to pick up the tab?
WHO is “lending” them 300 MILLION that will NEVER be paid back!! They don’t GENERATE any money, so how would this possibly be paid back.....don’t tell me “bonds”.
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Well have no fear - Bob Brady is going to put a Casino in on the old Food Distro site on Packer Ave, along with a hotel and theater venue. All the revenue to go for the Philly Schools after it gets washed through his, the Philly Schools, and Mayor Nutter’s pockets!
I think they, and the US Gov’t, all levels of gov’t, need to borrow borrow borrow, spend spend spend,
let’s just get this over with so we can start over.
The kids can’t read in Philly - why bother with the illusion of ‘teaching’. Offer the so called teachers 75% of their paychecks for life and let them sit at home. We’d save that much on school upkeep. It’s time to quit pretending. No one needs a degree to collect Social Security Disability.
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