If you are a senior in QCSD, you might think that June is the most wonderful time of the year. On the other hand, if you are a senior in QCSD, June is colder and darker then the worst winter. It all depends on what kind of senior you are.
For those 364 graduates in the senior class of QCHS, it is a time of excitement, and a rite of passage. Time to move on to new surroundings, new goals, and new challenges - even for the 90+ of them who couldn't read at the state minimum last year, but were graduated anyway.
But for those senior citizens who know that June brings with it the new school district budget, June is a time of dread. For many folks in our community living on fixed incomes, school real estate taxes will determine their quality of life. It can make the difference between staying in their homes, or being forced to move to an area where they can actually afford the taxes.
For Helen Kondracki, the news last week was not good. The long-time Haycock resident, who for years has been a spokesperson for cash-strapped seniors, and those on fixed incomes, says that the district's spending and budget for 2010-11 may be the last straw. Her taxes had increased so much in prior years that she was not able to repair a hole in her roof, and now she may not be able to even keep the house, hole and all. Her June 10 address to the board was so emotional that President Linda Martin didn't dare stop her, although Helen long exceeded her three-minute limit.
Despite the down economy, QCSD has adopted a budget of $90.4 million for next year, which is 6.85 percent higher than this year, and includes a whopping 10.5 percent increase in spending (which will likely be closer to 12 percent when compared to the actual 2009-10 numbers). As a basis of comparison, spending will increase in Palisades by 3.2 percent, Pennridge 2.13, Centennial 1.35, Northern Lehigh 1.2, and North Penn 0.7 percent. Neshaminy, despite facing a contentious new teacher contract, has proposed only a 3.6 percent spending increase. Other districts apparently can show the restraint that we can not.
Quakertown's millage is 138.87. In 2000-01, it was 77.75 mills. We are now paying 78.6 percent more than we did just 10 years ago. In real numbers, the average taxpayers in QCSD will see their bills soar by $233. Compare: Palisades $163, Centennial $154, Southern Lehigh $135, New Hope-Solebury $132, Pennridge $106, Council Rock $100, North Penn $83, Northern Lehigh $63, Saucon Valley $54, Pennsbury $47. Most have the same building issues, and all face the same PSERS problem.
Obviously, those other districts are willing to do something that QCSD is not - be realistic about their tax demands on the community. It is hard to understand how our free-spending board majority can even sleep at night, having chosen to continue luxuries like night football, when one of the steepest tax increases in Southeast PA will force some people to move out of their lifetime homes.
And don't be fooled by Superintendent Andrejko's blatantly false claim that the state gambling credit will cover the increase. That credit, $233, stays about the same each year. But our taxes are cumulative. From 2008-2011, the "average" homeowners in QCSD will have been billed about $11,000 for school property taxes, up 18.78 percent. The corresponding gambling credit is $714, about 6.6 percent.
What is in our $90+ million budget? One of the highest salary scales in the state for teachers and administrators who have, for years, presided over some of the worst student standardized test scores in Southeast PA. And a nice tidy slush fund for those "special projects" that the administration may want to keep out of the public eye. For the past decade, QCSD has paid less than $7 million per year in interest. For the past two years it was $6.7 million. Yet the budget line item for 2010-11 is more than $8 million. If the full $8 million isn't used for interest payments - and it won't be - the balance should be carried over in the interest account to reduce the tax hike next year. But it won't be. And we will never be told how that $1.5+ million was spent. It will be shifted to other line items as part of the hundreds of transfers done every year, possibly even spent on things that the administration wanted, but the board rejected in budget discussions. And when the finances are audited, everything will look just fine, because line items aren't tracked. And we will have spent $1.5+ million that might have just allowed Haycock Elementary to remain open, or Helen Kondracki to stay in her home.
But if Superintendent Andrejko sees, or even understands, the many problems, she hasn't let it affect her public relations efforts. At the June 10 board meeting to vote on the final budget, she repeated her latest mantra, complete with powerpoint presentation slide: "We have a revenue problem, not a spending problem". What incredible nonsense!!! I spend more than I have, but it's not my fault. It's OK to spend more, simply because I want more income, even if I don't get it. QCSD is the only spender around here that doesn't have to live within its means, because Andrejko proclaims that it doesn't have a spending problem, it has a revenue problem. And the board majority then makes it your problem. No wonder Andrejko was roundly booed at the high school graduation ceremony.
Do the simple math, and the problem is obvious. QCSD's website shows next year's projected revenue as $86,358,219, expenditures as $89,816,224. Ignoring the $600,000 fund reserve, we are over-spending by $3.5 million, or four percent. Next year, at a minimum, we will have to raise taxes by that four percent, plus another three percent just to pay for the normal operating increases. Plus an unknown percent for the PSERS retirement debacle. Plus an unknown percent for the upcoming teacher contract. Plus an unknown percent for programs we can no longer afford, but the out-of-touch board continues anyway. It only gets worse for Helen.
But that problem is no problem for the five board members who have the power to raise your taxes by far more than in any other district. And there is no community recourse. No public approvals required. No appeals to the courts allowed. No intervention by the government forthcoming. School board majorities are the only group in PA that can act unilaterally, without oversight or review. If you don't like it, move away, Helen.
But there is at least some relief at hand. The PA House of Representatives has passed a bill to delay the PSERS pension tsunami, though the overall cost to taxpayers will be about $27 billion. The Senate may act to trim those costs somewhat, but is under pressure from the teachers' union to keep the changes to a minimum.
And State Senate Bill 553, which just passed the Education Committee, would amend the Public School Code by requiring all millage property tax increases to be approved by a two-thirds majority vote of the school board, rather than just a simple majority. That would mean six votes would be necessary. And with the current makeup of our board, with four "reform" directors, that could be great news for those folks whose lifestyles have been threatened by our out-of-control spending and taxes. The bill could become law by the time the 2011-12 budgets are being created.
All of which may be too late for Helen Kondracki.