Alert Citizens ... and the Budget

I appreciate that the Centre Daily Times thought to print a couple of the on-line comments concerning their story on the property tax refunds that were recently awarded to the Village at Penn State.

One writer wondered how it was possible that said property could be assessed for less than it cost to build it.

Another got more to the point: "Why would Penn State ever pay its fair share of taxes?"

I feel compelled to say: it has ever been thus. (Recall SCASD's ill-fated attempt in 1997 to tax the profit-making components of the Penn State empire? A futile effort, to be sure.)

The obvious should be noted, however: the difference comes directly out of your pocket, dear taxpayer.

But it's good to see that someone's paying attention.


About the budget..

For a process that resulted in over $3.4 million in cuts, I thought the development of next year's budget went remarkably smoothly. And considering that my only significant disagreement represents less than 1% of that total, it can't be considered more than a quibble. However...

The $30,000 in question represents the required school supplies that the district will no longer provide to elementary school students.

My first argument against eliminating this from the budget is that there won’t be any actual "savings" - more accurately, this is a cost-shift from district taxpayers to parents. In fact, since the district can buy supplies in bulk, parents will end of spending more, in total, than the district would have. Not to mention the environmental impact of a couple of thousand additional trips to Wal-Mart. (Though I suppose one could argue that this would be a stimulus to the local economy..)

Second, although the amount involved is modest, there will be a few families for whom this will be a hardship. Since it has long been our practice that 'inability to pay' should not be a barrier to students, making sure that doesn’t happen will become an administrative chore for somebody.

Finally, there's the philosophical argument: If the community has a civic obligation to provide an education to its children - which it does, both constitutionally, and, I believe, morally - that ought to include required supplies.

For what it's worth.