Recent publicity has called attention to the billions in reserve funds accumulated by Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts, 67 vocational/technical schools and 176 charter schools. Are school districts hoarding funds that could be used to avoid tax increases or program cuts? Are cries that more state aid is needed an exaggeration? Read Explaining School Fund Balances: Are PA Schools, with $4.3 billion in Reserve Funds, Really Flush? Just the (Dry) Facts by David Davare, Pennsylvania Economy League Central’s Director of Research.
The Quiet Boom and Potential Bust of PA Townships
February 18, 2014
Recent data indicated that the once booming Pennsylvania townships are seeing troubling signs including rising service costs and tax revenue that is either declining or flattening. The challenge for townships may soon be the same issue facing distressed cities: how to provide quality services at a price that taxpayers can afford.
Read PEL’s latest commentary The Quiet Boom and Potential Bust of PA Townships
The Scranton Times Looks at the Public Pension Problem
October 31, 2013
The Scranton Times takes an insightful look at municipal pension problems in a recent series that included interviews with PEL Executive Director Gerald Cross.
Click on the links below to read the series:
Newspaper’s investigation finds municipal pension plans underfunded
Moosic taxpayers haunted by 2007 decision to double pension benefits
Clarks Summit police chief earns more $113G between his salary and Carbondale pension
Carbondale boosts pension perks to get three cops to retire
Program lets public employees work while amassing additional retirement nest egg
Newton Twp. police chief boosts pension amid lax oversight
Scranton’s pension plans on fast road to ruin
Experts mixed on borrowing to shore up pension funds
Beyond Act 47: A Call to Action
July 11, 2013
Reforms to Act 47 will not prevent the circumstances that are causing more and more municipalities to experience fiscal problems that endanger service delivery. Pennsylvania needs options that will better enable communities to provide regional services. Read about the problem and one possible solution in Beyond Act 47: A Call to Action!
Broken in the Box: A Case for Local Government Reform in Pennsylvania
February 25, 2013
Like an eagerly awaited gift that turns out to be in pieces when the wrapping is torn away, Pennsylvania’s inadequate method of raising revenue for local government services is broken in the box. The result: Many municipalities are either teetering at the edge of a fiscal cliff as they struggle to pay for a comprehensive range of services for their residents or they remain in the black by shortchanging citizens on vital but costly services that boost quality of life. Download Broken in the Box: A Case for Local Government Reform here.