Mismanaged Money Cause Of Tax Hikes by Sen. Scott Wagner
The purpose of this column is to highlight my strong belief that Pennsylvania State Government spending is out of control and that there are weak financial controls in place.
As evidenced by the linked articles below, our Governor firmly believes that taxpayers are wiling to fork over more money to fuel Harrisburg’s out of control spending.
There is zero accountability for billions of dollars of taxpayer money that is currently sent to Harrisburg.
Below are two recent news stories that are worth reading and reinforce my opinion.
The first article is titled – “Wolf asking for $577 million more for schools but some say that’s not enough”
The article starts off with these sentences: “Gov. Tom Wolf apparently is a believer in not accepting “no” for an answer especially when it comes to education funding. He announced on Tuesday that he is standing by his demand for a bigger increase in basic education funding in the still-unfinished 2015-16 budget of $377 million.”
Governor Wolf just doesn’t get it. There is more than enough money in the education system but it is not being managed properly.
I continue to be amazed with Governor Wolf. All he wants to do is throw more money at a system that is not being held accountable.
Click here to read the full article.
Governor Wolf announced, Feb. 2, that he would like an additional $200 million in basic education funding for the 2016 – 2017 fiscal year, in addition to the $377 million in basic education funding he demanded for the 2015 – 2016 fiscal year.
I believe investing in education is important, but there are alternatives to raising taxes on Pennsylvanians to find the money he is demanding – Pension reform, prevailing wage reform, and holding school districts accountable for their spending should be his priorities right now, not raising taxes.
The next story I want to share with you is actually one of the most shocking that I have heard since I arrived in the PA State Senate almost two years ago.
On Dec. 16,the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the State Auditor General’s Office had recently completed an audit of the Pittsburgh Public Schools and found $129 Million Dollars that was not being disclosed to the public and the school board.
Click here to read the full article.
To learn more about this story I spoke to Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale Feb. 2.
With permission from the Auditor General, here are the facts that he communicated to me.
I asked the Auditor General what prompted him to do the audit at the school district. He responded that the Mayor of Pittsburgh, Bill Peduto, requested the audit because the mayor was given information that the school district was going to run out of money in the next 3-4 years and he wanted an audit conducted to verify the financial stability of the school district.
On Dec. 16, the Auditor General held a press conference outlining the findings of his office’s audit.
Here is a link to the Auditor General’s findings (for a quick snapshot of the issue and findings refer to pages 8 – 10 in the report):
At the press conference he congratulated the Pittsburgh School District for their financial management and expressed that the school district had the largest cash reserve balance of all 500 school districts in Pennsylvania.
He went on to express that the school district should continue their financial management and discipline.
The Auditor General then concluded the press conference.
Immediately after the press conference four school board members approached the Auditor General in disbelief over the facts released at the press conference.
The school board members went on to tell the Auditor General that the next evening they were scheduled to be voting for a property tax increase because the administration had represented to the board that a tax increase was needed.
This story highlights, in my opinion, that our state government is out of control – there are “Swiss Bank Accounts” everywhere, filled with taxpayer money, that the public does not know about.
I believe that every school district in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania should have an audited financial review conducted by an outside accounting firm certifying the accuracy and findings of the audit.
The accounting firms selected to do the audits should be selected by the state to ensure there are no conflicts of interest.
I strongly encourage you to read the article– it highlights the lack of accountability for the people responsible at the school district and their auditors.
The district owes us all an explanation. What are they hiding? Was the money intended to be used for salary and benefit increases for teachers and administration staff? Are they hiding it so they have a better case to raise taxes? The public deserves answers.
Here is a question I have to ask: “Did the Pittsburgh School District increase school property taxes in the years 2011 – 2014 when in fact they accumulated a surplus for those years for a total of approximately $48 million?”
The more I learn after several conversations with the Auditor General and reading the full report that he issued on Dec. 16., I have to shake my head in amazement at what took place in the Pittsburgh School District.
There are 500 school districts in Pennsylvania and we must know their financial conditions inside and out.
In the private sector business world financial shenanigans similar to what took place in the Pittsburgh School District could be viewed as fraud.
In the beginning of my email I talked about the term “Accountability” – taxpayers should demand a complete audit of every public government bank account, school district bank accounts and any entity that receives state funding in PA – we NEED to know how much money is in each and every bank account in PA before PA taxpayers are ordered to pay more taxes and fees.
Mismanaged Money Cause Of Tax Hikes
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