When budgets are tight, school districts sometimes have to dip into reserve funds to make ends meet.
It’s not something they like to do, but these are desperate times.
“We can’t count on doing this every year,” said Dr. Paul B. Eaken, Fleetwood superintendent.
This is the second year in a row that Fleetwood has relied on its reserves; the district spent $1.4 million to balance the 2011-12 budget.
Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States Public School Districts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Attrition.
It’s a word that has no doubt become quite familiar to school board members across Berks County as they look to shed expenses.
And the No. 1 expense for a school district? Personnel.
Cutting staff is a tough choice, but one many Berks school districts have faced. In all, 15 districts have said they will trim their ranks for the 2012-13 year.
Because cutting jobs has a big impact on people’s lives, attrition has become the preferred method.
HARRISBURG, PA – The House Finance Committee today wrangled with a controversial idea — eliminating school property taxes and replacing the money with higher state personal income taxes and higher state sales taxes.
Rep. Jim Cox, R-Berks, said property taxes on residential and commercial buildings are a major burden for many owners, especially senior citizens on fixed incomes.
“Even when the mortgage on a house is paid off, the owner still has to ‘rent’ it from the government by paying school property taxes, and that isn’t fair,” he said. Some owners have lost their homes when they were unable to pay rising property taxes, he added.
Editor’s note: This is SPOT ON! There are a number of Pennsylvania grocery store chains on the list that you will recognize instantly:
The biggest complaint: too few open checkouts, followed by crowded or dirty aisles.
Shoppers were surveyed on four categories: service (including employee courtesy and checkout speed); perishables (food quality); price and cleanliness.
The highest-rated supermarket chain was Wegmans Food Markets, headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., and operating 75 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia and Maryland.
Read more to see the wall of shame: http://money.msn.com/investment-advice/americas-least-favorite-supermarkets
Map of Pennsylvania, showing major cities and roads (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania‘s unemployment rate is now too low for it to continue offering 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits, the U.S. Department of Labor and Industry says.
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was 7.5 percent in March, down from a 12-month high of 8.3 percent in September.
Right now, jobless Pennsylvanians receive 26 weeks of state-funded benefits and, once that runs out, 47 weeks of federally funded Emergency Unemployment Compensation. The extended benefits provided 13 weeks of additional aid beyond that 47-week window.
WHAT: TriCounty Community Network (TCN) will be hosting Rep. Tom Quigley (146th District, Montgomery County) at its May 15 meeting. Rep. Quigley will be focusing on his jobs platform, discussing job creation initiatives, such as Employ PA, which is aimed at improving legal, regulatory, and tax areas for large and small companies to help them prosper and move forward, and ultimately create jobs and boost the economy.
This event comes one day before the 2nd Annual TriCounty Community Career Fair, sponsored by the TCN Exelon Nuclear Workforce Development Program, where more than 70 employers will be exhibiting and more than 500 job seekers are expected.
WHO: TCN is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, membership-based organization that partners with nonprofits, businesses and community members to improve health, social and environmental conditions. Serving Western Montgomery, Northern Chester and Eastern Berks counties in Pennsylvania, TCN offers seven key programs: Build Up Youth, CARE (Caring in Alternative Residential Environments), Environmental Awareness, Family Literacy, Homeless Services, SAFE (Supporting Abuse Free Environments), and Workforce Development. For more information on TCN, visit www.tcnetwork.org.
WHEN: Tuesday, May 15, 2012
8:00am – 10:00am
WHERE: Montgomery County Community College – West Campus
101 College Drive
COST: Free
RSVP: Members of the media should RSVP to Karen Higgins, A&E Communications, at khiggins@aandecomm.com or 610-831-5723. To register for the May 15th meeting or for questions on the May 16th Career Fair, contact TCN at 610-705-3301 ext. 2.
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lancaster County‘s unemployment rate receded again in March, the state said Monday.
The jobless rate slid to 6.0 percent from February’s 6.2 percent, the fifth consecutive monthly decline.
The new rate is the lowest in Lancaster County since January 2009, when the rate stood at 5.9 percent.
“We still might have the occasional blip here or there, but the rate is heading in the right direction,” said Bill Sholly, an analyst with the state Department of Labor & Industry.
Cops: Theft of scrap metal becoming an epidemic
The cases make the news with frequency.
Last month, a thief stole copper piping from a Moosic Street home owned by the wife of the late former Scranton Police Chief James Klee.
There are houses that have flooded when thieves tore out copper piping. A man whose electrocuted body was found under a utility pole in Wright Twp. was killed trying to steal aluminum from power lines.
In November, Dunmore police arrested a Scranton man who twice broke into a PPL Electric Utilities plant on Larch Street to steal copper wire.
Police say that scrap-metal thefts have become an “epidemic” that is hard to fight.
It’s back for another year! Click on the link to see what’s going on in Pennsylvania this year during fair season. Don’t sit home and be bored. Get out there and explore Pennsylvania!
Click here for a PDF file of PA Fairs:
Standard of the Governor of Pennsylvania http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-pa.html#gov (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
HARRISBURG - Pennsylvanians who are concerned about rising school taxes should take their complaints to local school boards, not the state government, Gov. Tom Corbett said Wednesday.
“I think the taxpayers need to help themselves,” Corbett replied when a caller on Philadelphia’s Talk Radio 1210 WPHT asked what can be done to help ease the pressures on taxpayers.
In his monthly appearance on the “Dom Giordano Program,” the Republican governor suggested that excessively small class sizes and overly generous contracts with teachers unions are part of the reason many school districts are struggling financially.
“I would love to see the taxpayers speaking up at the school board meetings,” he said.
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So of course, I sat and scrolled through 39 pages to get to PA!
In my head I was expecting Fayette County or Greene County to make PA’s poorest county. Not so!
Philadelphia is a city and a county. Philadelphia is the poorest county in Pennsylvania with nearly 400,000 people (26.4 %) living at or below the poverty level.
Another list, another day!
If you feel like looking at all 50 states, click here: http://money.msn.com/family-money/the-poorest-county-in-each-state-mainstreet
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Berks County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Berks County tied for the 19th-highest growth rate among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties from 2010 to 2011, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
“This is good news for Berks County,” said county commissioners Chairman Christian Y. Leinbach.
Part of the reason for that growth is Berks is in the middle of a growing corridor from Lehigh to Lancaster counties, Leinbach said.
Lehigh tied for Pennsylvania‘s second-highest growth rate and Lancaster tied for fifth.
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Allegheny County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Editor’s note: Speaking of strip searches and WTF moments!
PITTSBURGH – Attorneys for western Pennsylvania‘s largest county jail are defending their decision to pay $3 million to settle a class action involving 1,600 inmates who were strip searched before doing time for minor offenses, even though the U.S. Supreme Court decided such searches are legal earlier this week.
The 2010 settlement involving the Allegheny County Jail included payments to any inmates strip searched for a minor offense between July 13, 2004 and March 18, 2008. About 12,000 inmates were believed to have been eligible for the money, but only a fraction responded with class action claims. Those inmates divided the money remaining after deducting $1 million in attorneys’ fees and another $265,000 went to pay a firm that processed the claims.
Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/20120403_ap_pacountydefends3mstripsearchsettlement.html#ixzz1rDqsASbf
Watch sports videos you won’t find anywhere else
Lake Erie from satellite 2007. Photograph courtesy of NASA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Officials in Michigan and Ohio promised closer cooperation Wednesday in the quest for solutions to massive algae blooms in Lake Erie, a deadly threat to fish and a turn-off for tourists.
Delegations from both states, including their top environmental protection officials, agreed to push harder for reductions in phosphorus discharges from farms, waste treatment plants and other sources while sharing ideas and supporting research. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pledged technical and financial assistance.
“We all agreed that while more research is needed, that shouldn’t be a barrier to taking action now,” said Susan Hedman, chief of the EPA’s regional office in Chicago. “It’s absolutely clear that we need to reduce nutrient loading to the western end of Lake Erie.”
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Berks County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
February unemployment rates fell in both Reading and Berks County. Reading’s rate fell 0.8 percentage points from a revised 11.7 percent in January, and Berks County’s rate fell 0.3 percentage points from a revised 7.8 percent in January, according to statistics provided today by the state Department of Labor and Industry.
The seasonally adjusted county rate decreased 0.7 percentage points from February 2011.
In the city, the unemployment rate was down from 12 percent a year earlier, or 1.1 percentage points. That rate is not seasonally adjusted.
The decreases to jobless rates are significant for both the county and the city, said Steven Zellers, department industry and business analyst
Slot machines at Wookey Hole Caves (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Editor’s note: PottsVegas never happened but evidently other communities have embraced casinos! King of Prussia wasn’t too good for a casino!
PHILADELPHIA – Pennsylvania’s 11 casinos pulled in more than $233.1 million in gross slot machine revenue last month, setting an all-time monthly high since the state’s first casino opened in November 2006 and cementing the state’s status as the nation’s second-largest gambling market.
The slots totals released Tuesday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board include revenue from two test nights and one day of operations at the state’s 11th casino, Valley Forge Casino Resort, which opened Saturday. Overall, the figures broke the previous monthly record of $218.3 million set in July, and they represent an 8.5 percent increase over March 2011.
The last year has been pretty sweet for PPL Electric Utilities customers.
PPL has cut its rates five times because it’s been able to obtain power at ever-cheaper prices and pass those better deals onto its customers.
But while the cost of obtaining power accounts for about two-thirds of the total bill, there’s a smaller, yet significant chunk.
It’s the cost of delivering that power to your door.
And now PPL wants to charge extra for providing that service, enough to negate some of that recent relief.
Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/615869_PPL-eyes-hike-of-6-3–on-average.html#ixzz1qqSDdRen
If Pennsylvania State Police troopers started disappearing from the roads, would anyone really notice?
Last week, State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan told a joint House-Senate panel that there aren’t enough new cadets in training to fill the vacancies anticipated by veteran troopers retiring.
Noonan said that when the current class of cadets graduates from the State Police Academy in Hershey this summer, the ranks of the troopers will still be down by 10 percent of 4,500 capacity.
Each class of the academy can produce 115 new state troopers.
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Lancaster County unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent in January, a three-year low, the state said Thursday.
The drop from December’s 6.7 percent marked the fourth time in the past five months that the jobless rate here has dipped.
January’s figure is the best here since January 2009′s rate of 6 percent, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry.
Bill Sholly, an industry and business analyst with the department, said he was encouraged to see more county residents with jobs.
Image via Wikipedia
The Pennsylvania Game Commission has given Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Berks County $250,000 toward the construction of an amphitheater that will bear the commission’s name.
The 2,500-acre sanctuary in Albany Township welcomes about 70,000 visitors a year and is considered one of the best places in the Northeast to watch the annual autumn raptor migration. It is in the midst of a $10 million capital improvement campaign.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission Amphitheater will replace the current structure, where sanctuary educators present live raptor programs and school and other groups gather.
“The current amphitheater … offers no sheltered stage area and the wooden benches retain moisture,” sanctuary President Jerry Regan said.
Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-hawk-mountain-ampitheater-20120316,0,1907579.story
