Category: Salaries

The Ghost Of Tom Joad And Neshaminy Teachers

Tom Joad, the heroic working class everyman from the Grapes of Wrath played by Henry Fonda, is oft cited by the labor movement in its cries for social justice.

In the spirit of Tom Joad, whose California trip was started by the repossession of his family home, The Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania  is advertising the salaries and benefits of the teachers in the Neshaminy School District, who are forcing the district’s children to go without an education in an attempt to get even more than the $107,002 average package they now receive.
Some rob with a six-gun. Some rob with a fountain pen. The latter are worse.
It should be noted that the burden the Neshaminy teachers are placing on their residents is happening in every school district throughout the state.
By the way, not all of those on the list are classroom teachers. They include gym teachers, guidance counselors and librarians all of whom get the same rate.
Here is a link to a downloadable pdf list of the names, salaries and benefits.

Pa. Legislators Get Pay Hike

The wise men and women who make up Pennsylvania’s legislature are scheduled to get a 3 percent pay raise, Monday, bringing their base pay to $82,026.

No vote is needed for this hike as it was made automatic many moons ago in the 1990s.

For those concerned that these hard-working people are not paid enough, please remember that the $82,026  does not include retirement and health packages and neat little perks like per diems, and that the committee chairman and legislative leaders get paid more. In fact, the salaries of the four legislative leaders — two from each party — rises to $118,845.

For my Tea Party friends, the party that controls the legislature now is the Republicans.


Tax Public Salaries 90 Percent

Tax Public Salaries 90 Percent — A Republican congressional contingent led by Eric Cantor of Virginia walked out of talks with Democrats about raising our $14.3 trillion federal debt limit. The walk-out, June 23, was due to Dem’s insistence on further raising taxes on producers.

OK, the Dems want a tax hike. How about this: adding a 90-percent bracket on all public salaries — federal, state and local — after $100,000. This would include, of course, with those in educational and cultural institutions receiving public subsides.

I’ll patriotically go for that one. Would fellow patriot Amy Gutmann — who receives a $1.36 million salary as president of the University of Pennsylvania which receives millions in subsides from the taxpayers of Pennsylvania — join me?

Hey, make it a 99-percent bracket.

Make it a 99.9999 percent bracket.

 

 

Tax Public Salaries 90 Percent

Big Man Gets $800G And PSU Wants More From Taxpayers

The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that the total cost of employment to Penn State University for President Graham  Spanier is $800,592.  The figure comes from adding  salary– which in Spanier’s case is $620,000 — to things like housing, bonuses, deferred compensation, retirement set aside, car allowances, tuition assistance and related spousal pay.

On the basis of salary, Spanier does not rank in the top 10 of public college compensation. When everything is included he jumps to number five.

Number one in both categories is Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee who has a $1.322 million salary and $1.818  million total cost of employment.

Penn State, like Temple, Pitt and Lincoln, is a “state-related” school in that while it gets public money, its governance is independent of the state.

The budget  passed May 24 by the State House would give PSU $252 million in tax dollars this year, which is $81 million less than last year. Spanier is upset about this but he is not as upset about this as he was about Gov. Corbett’s proposed budget which sought to cut $168.76 million in tax funds from the institution.

It should be noted the state contribution has traditionally made up about 10 percent of Penn State’s budget.

There is nothing wrong with someone earning $800 thousand in compensation despite what some, such as Philadelphia Inquirer cartoonist Tony Auth, might think. There is a lot wrong, however, with someone getting that money when some of it is obtained through the threat of force which is how taxes are obviously obtained.

If Spanier wants to be among the filthy rich his school should not get a penny in state subsides.

And yes, that applies to Joe Paterno, about whom you can actually make a case that he objectively earns his paycheck, too.

For the record, the House budget provides subsidizes of

  • $125 million to Pitt, which is a cut of $42 million
  • $129 million to Temple, which is a cut $43 million
  • $10.3 million to Lincoln, which is a cut of $3.4 million.

Hat tip to Tea Party activist Bob Guzzardi.

Adolph Says Vote Likely On Pa. NoBamaCare Bill

The man accused of bottling up a bill that would make much of Obamacare hard to enforce in Pennsylvania told the Delaware County Patriots, Thursday, May 19, that it will likely come up for a vote this year.

State Rep. Bill Adolph (R-165), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee has been accused of sitting on HB 42 by Tea Party activists. The bill has been tied up in Adolph’s committee since Feb. 8.

HB 42, introduced by Matthew Baker (R-68) on Jan. 19, says A law
or rule shall not compel, through penalties and fines, directly or
indirectly, any individual, employer or health care provider to
participate in any health care system.

It also specifically
says that an individual or employer may pay directly for lawful health
care services and shall not be required to pay penalties or fines for
doing so; and specifically allows  health care providers to accept
direct payments without penalties. It also prohibits state law enforcement and regulatory agencies from
participating “in compliance with any Federal law, regulation or policy”
that would compromise the “freedom of choice in health care” of any
resident of the state.

Adolph told the group, which met at Knights of Columbus hall in Newtown Square, that the biggest budget problem facing the state was the expiration of federal stimulus money. He said  last year’s $28 billion budget contained $3.1 billion of the fed dollars.

The $27.3 billion budget proposed by Gov. Corbett places a heavier burden on the state taxpayers despite it being smaller. House Republicans have tweaked the budget by easing some of the cuts the Governor had made to education while adding cuts to welfare. Adolph said the House budget gives state higher education 75 percent of what it had gotten last year, while Corbett would have cut the outlay in half.

Adolph said that the House budget actually ends up being few hundred thousand dollars less than the Governors.

Concerning the questions fielded by Adolph — and HB 42 was one — he said:

— He supported in principle privatizing the state-owned liquor stores but would not commit to any specific legislation as the “devil was in the details”.

— He supported giving school boards the power to furlough teachers for economic reasons. He, however, ducked the other half regarding his position on ending the requirement that school districts and municipalities pay prevailing wage for renovation and construction projects.

–He is not familiar with the First Suburbs issue which is starting to be discussed in Tea Party groups and appears to be an attempt to use government programs such as Section 8 housing to economically “diversify” Philadelphia’s older suburbs in accordance with the preferences of academics and activists.

–He supported abolishing the inheritance tax.

–He voted for and supports HB 1330, which expands the state’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit, and that he was only aware of the highlights of SB 1, the school choice bill bottled up in the Senate. He said he supports school choice in principle.

–That teachers should not be allowed to strike.

— He supports voter ID.

— He believes in state sovereignty.

— He supports cutting the size of the state legislature.

The only matter on which he incurred the crowd’s wrath concerned state pensions, and his unwillingness to condemn former State Sen. Bob Mellow’s $300,000 pension in significantly vociferous terms. He said Mellow’s pension plan had been grandfathered from before 1974, and that he should get it. He did not seem to get that it may fairer and more just to change the terms of an old poorly conceived contract rather than make a widow who was not party to it lose her home trying to fulfill it.

The Sweet Life Of A Pa. Mandarin

Reader TomC has sent me a link to this Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story noting that two dozen state employees in education-related agencies earn $200,000 or more, and that they are among nearly 3,600 state employees paid at least $100,000 annually.

And, that doesn’t even count those in superintendents, and assistant superintendents and assistant to assistant superintendents in local education who rake in $100,000-plus.

And that doesn’t even count their health packages and taxpayer-bailed out pension plans that will allow them to earn near that much after they become officially unproductive.

Springfield SB Seeks $3 M In New Spending

The Springfield School Board is considering a $3 million spending hike paid for in part by a $2 million real estate tax increase, according to taxpayer watchdog Regina Scheerer.

Ms. Scheerer is seeking $1 million in spending cuts and a $1 million reduction in the proposed tax hike. She notes that $1.7 million of that increase is contractual for salaries and benefits.

The school board has a budget meeting 6:30 p.m., Thursday, April 7, at the McLaughlin Education Center on Leamy Avenue next to the high school.

This meeting and a meeting scheduled for May 5 will determine the budget.
 

 

Corbett College-Cut Critics Milk The Cash Cow

Gov. Corbett’s plan to cut $625 million in funds to collegiate bureaucrats and send some of the money directly to students as scholarships has sure caused some shrieks and howls.

Among the howlers whose cash cow is being gored are:

Penn State University President Graham Spanier whose salary is $620,000 not including benefits;

Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, whose salary is $486,500 not including benefits and who just received a sweet $26,500 raise;

Temple President Ann Weaver Hart whose salary is $527,403 not including benefits;

Cheyney University President Michelle Howard-Vital, who got but a mere $193,800 not including benefits albeit that was in 2008 and she’s got a few raises since.

Oh, the humanity.

Among the defenders of the fat-cat educrats is Springfield’s own State Rep. Bill Adolph (R-165) who as House Appropriations Chairman earns about $90,000 per year and is in line for a $64,000 pension upon retirement.

 

Corbett College-Cut Critics Milk The Cash Cow

‘Generational Theft’ Pension Bill Dead In Pa


Update: This bill is back from the dead.

The proposed Pennsylvania pension fix that one Republican leader called “generational theft ” is dead.

The State House  announced, Friday, that it will not return as expected nor in accordance with tradition, to address outstanding legislative matters to the ire of Gov. Rendell and Democrat interest groups such as the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

This means the bill must be started from scratch and when the House reconvenes Jan. 4 it will be in the control of Republicans and supported by a Republican governor. The senate had been and remains in Republican hands.

HB 2497 passed the House 192-6 on June 16 and was referred to the Senate which amended it and finally voted on it Oct. 16 when it passed 41-8.

The House, however, did not appreciate the changes the Senate made to the bill, especially concerning the creation of an independent fiscal office to check the governor’s revenue projections and spending reports

State Rep. Dwight Evans (D-203) of Philadelphia, who is the House Appropriations chairman, called the office costly and unconstitutional in a letter to his fellow House members.

State Rep. Sam Rohrer (R-128), who is the minority chairman of the House’s Finance Committee, said in June that the bill merely made minor improvements to the state retirement policy — none of which would apply to existing beneficiaries — but saddled future generations with 30-years of new debt.

IOW, so state leaders can still collect $313,000 pensions .

Pennsylvania taxpayers gave  $843 million this year to the two public-sector pension systems — Public School Employees’s Retirement System (PSERS)  and State Employees Retirement System (SERS) — that serve more than 675,000 current andretired state government and public school employees.

That contribution will increase to $5.8 billion within two years, according to Commonwealth Foundation.

On a totally unrelated note five of the top 25 paid public employees in Pennsylvania — all of whom earn more than $200K not counting benefits — work for either the PSERS or SERS.

Pa. Schools Now An Open Book


All union contracts, tax rates and the salaries of every public school district employee in Pennsylvania are now on-line at a easy-to-use, one-stop site.

The project is designed to provide a year-by-year tally of property taxes, and allowvisitors to determine how much taxes have risen — or, in some rarecases, fallen — over the past decade.

The site is openpagov.org and a direct link to the school information can be found here.

Commonwealth Foundation is the manager of the site.

Kudos to Commonwealth Foundation.