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Our Opinion: Blame shared widely for Wilkes-Barre Area School District’s predicament

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Lottery Summary for the week of May 22

<p>Most area school districts have either proposed their 2016-17 budgets, as Dallas has done, or have finalized them.</p><p>Some have gone beyond the state&#8217;s &#8220;maximum&#8221; percentage of tax increase, using an exception the state allowed, while some simply have raised taxes by the state maximum index for that district. Certainly these school boards&#8217; members are within their rights and performed their duties to the letter of the law. But there is another side to these budgets that seems to be ignored, especially in regard to our quality of life, a vigorous local economy, improving the educational experience of our students and providing the best possible learning environment for them. This is the value side of a school district budget.</p><p>Some economists would ask, &#8220;what is the &#8216;opportunity cost&#8217; of the tax revenue raised in order to establish value?&#8221; What would the taxpayer money be used for otherwise? Is our tax revenue budgeted not only effectively and prudently, but also are we receiving value for our investment? Economists also point out that tax rates do not necessarily increase revenue, because as tax rates rise, incentive falls &#8211; until a point is reached at which there is no incentive to produce, and revenue continues to decline.</p><p>We have reached the point at which incentive to own property has diminished. Today, we read research by the National Realtors Association indicating millennials have chosen to postpone property ownership, primarily due to student debt. Climbing tax rates, expensive code requirements and overzealous zoning regulations &#8211; not to mention the high cost of flood insurance, where it is required &#8211; help to postpone the decision as well. This is the generation that we expect to ultimately support our schools.</p><p>A &#8220;stacked hybrid&#8221; plan that the Pennsylvania House of Representatives&#8217; State Government Committee has passed for new hires does not address the deficit, and as a result school district budgets spend less on education and the quality of our schools&#8217; learning environments, and more on pensions and wages.</p><p>The high cost of supporting a huge and bloated government whose objective is to fulfill political obligations to big business and big labor has left the taxpayer out in the cold, paying more into the pension system, keeping it afloat to the tune of $600 per average household in property taxes since 2008-2009, according to the Commonwealth Foundation. The trend will continue.</p><p>The crushing pension deficit and high cost of wages have reduced the quality of life of the taxpayer, educational opportunities for our children and quality of our educational infrastructure, which has become antiquated. These reductions in opportunity and education represent the &#8220;opportunity cost&#8221; to the taxpayer. This is the real cost of what we have given up to get what we have.</p><p>Our tax dollars should be, and can be, put to better use.</p><p><strong>Patrick Musto</strong></p><p>Dallas</p><style>
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Letter to the Editor: Too much ‘school’ spending supports pensions and wages, not education