Money coming but all's not well

Does the ennumerator have anything to do with this?
From the BCCT:
Money coming but all's not well

By: JOAN HELLYER
Bucks County Courier Times
Locally, basic education subsidies from the state range from about $3 million for Morrisville to just under $20 million for Bristol Township.
Now that the budget impasse is over in Harrisburg, it's clear that Lower Bucks County school districts are getting some additional money to cover expenses, primarily from federal stimulus funds.
But the money, earmarked for basic education and special education costs, will only be available through 2010-11.
"Yes, in two years' time it will be a very interesting question as to what happens on (both) of those fronts," said Jack Myers, Bensalem's director of business operations.
Area districts are preparing for the worst.
"We will most likely pick up the funding locally," Neshaminy business administrator Joseph Paradise said. That would mean a potentially sizeable tax increase, officials say.
But at present, local school systems will receive basic education funding increases from the state ranging from 2 percent to 4.25 percent during 2009-10, education officials said.
The funding was in limbo for about three months during the budget impasse. The state caught up with its payments to the districts this week, education department officials said.
With the agreement, basic education subsidy increases range from $59,385 for the Morrisville School District to $796,162 for the Bristol Township School District. Bristol Township receives the greatest percentage increase among local districts because it's considered less wealthy than other school systems, officials said.

Overall, Morrisville, the smallest district in Lower Bucks, will receive more than $3 million from the state to cover expenses in its mainstream classrooms during 2009-10. Bristol Township will receive about $20 million. Other local districts are somewhere in between.
State lawmakers and Gov. Ed Rendell agreed to use almost $655 million in federal stimulus funds to cover basic education costs this school year, said Michael Race, a Pennsylvania Department of Education spokesman.
About $355 million of that amount is being used to match the basic education subsidy paid out last year, because the state did not have enough of its own money to do so in 2009-10, state education officials said.
The remaining $300 million in stimulus funds is being used to increase the state's basic education subsidy to the districts as part of a six-year initiative. The goal is to pump an extra $2.6 billion into public education between now and 2014 to adequately fund all schools, Race said.
Districts also are receiving federal stimulus funds to cover special education costs. The stimulus money is to be split between 2009-10 and 2010-11.
Locally, the stimulus funds for special education range from $265,549 for Morrisville to about $2.5 million for Council Rock.
The extra federal dollars devoted to special education expenses enabled the state to freeze special education subsidies for districts at 2008-09 levels, the PDE spokesman said.

Schools surviving budget impasse

from the bcct:

Schools surviving budget impasse

By: GARY WECKSELBLATT
Bucks County Courier Times
Though the lack of a state budget has prevented school districts from collecting money due from Harrisburg, area schools expect to be able to pay their bills for several months despite no agreement in the Legislature.
Local schools rely more on property taxes than state funding. So despite missing their July and August payments from the Commonwealth because of the budget impasse, the Aug. 31 deadline for homeowners to get a reduced rate on their property taxes boosted district coffers just as students arrived for their first day of school.
"That's really saving us right now," said David Matyas, business administrator for Central Bucks, which receives about 15 percent of its budget from the state. "That'll keep us solvent through January, February."
A critical portion of the argument going on today in Harrisburg - as it has for most of the year - involves school funding. Democrats and Republicans attempting to fill a $3.3 billion budget hole are at odds on how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or stimulus money, should be spent.
Republicans want to drop baseline funding and plow stimulus money over it to increase education spending by 11 percent. Gov. Ed Rendell and Democrats prefer to use the stimulus for new programs and increase funding by 19 percent. Rendell has also called for a 16 percent increase in the personal income tax, which does not have enough support to pass either the Senate or House.
Area educators, not surprisingly, support the governor's spending plan because it would mean more money for their schools.
However, Bucks County state Reps. Frank Farry and Marguerite Quinn said their constituents would be big losers under Rendell's proposed tax.
According to state department of education statistics based on 2006 income data, residents in the Neshaminy School District would pay an additional $9.7 million in taxes and the district would get back $650,000, Farry said.
Quinn, whose district includes portions of Central Bucks, Palisades and Pennridge, said her constituents would pay $28 million for $2 million in funding.
Despite those numbers, and the tax increase notwithstanding, educators have been on board with Rendell's beefier budget.
At a rally last month, Lisa Andrejko, superintendent of Quakertown schools, said stimulus money "must be used to supplement and not supplant. That's the true definition of stimulus. It cannot be used for current expenses."
However, a study released by the American Association of School Administrators found that states across the country have enacted the budget model supported by Republicans in the General Assembly.




Titled "Schools and the Stimulus: How America's Public School Districts Are Using ARRA Funds," the study points out that the need to fill federal, state and local budget shortfalls has become a sizeable obstacle many districts nationwide have been unable to overcome.
The survey of 160 school administrators from 37 states conducted in July and August, stated that "more than two-thirds of respondents replied that the stimulus dollars are either filling funding gaps or represent only marginal growth in funding levels."
Mike Braun, business manager for Upper Moreland, is against that format of stimulus spending. "We want to have it as a building block not as a stop gap measure," he said.
Said Matyas, "Anything from the federal government comes with strings attached, so it's not wide open how we can use that money."
In the meantime, he said the district was in a "conserve mode. Everything we can do to conserve cash right now is how we're proceeding. We're squeezing every nickel we can."
Timothy Vail, Centennial's business administrator, said his district should be OK through late November. The district is investing in fewer long-term packages to keep tax revenue more liquid, he said.
Pennsbury spokeswoman Ann Langtry said her district will feel the impact by February or March. That's why officials there have been trying to hold down spending, conserve cash, and use other budgeted revenue, she said.
Democrats said this week their latest spending plan totals $28.1 billion, which House Majority Leader Todd Eachus said represents a nearly $1 billion reduction from their previous proposal but more than the state spent in the last year. Democrats have talked about various potential new taxes, but have not said which ones they would use to sustain that spending level.
House Minority Leader Sam Smith countered this week with an alternative plan that he said would reduce spending by 2.5 percent, to $27.5 billion, without a major tax increase.
Democrats stressed the need for additional recurring revenues to avert projected budget shortfalls of $4.5 billion in 2010-11 and $8.8 billion in 2011-12, largely due to the expected cutoff of federal economic stimulus funds and growth in mandatory expenses such as Medicaid, state prisons, and state-employee pensions.
Republicans argued cutting spending immediately would help reduce potential shortfalls in the future.