6-Figure Shortfall Stymies Exeter School Board

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States Public School Districts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Frustrations ran high among Exeter school officials at a budget workshop held before a sparse crowd this week.

“It’s a bind the state has put us in,” said Dr. David S. Bender, school board vice president.

“Not to mention the lack of support in Harrisburg for education funding,” said Dr. Beverly A. Martin, superintendent. “You don’t want to raise taxes because people are hurting. How do you get out of that type of hole?”

Since adopting a preliminary budget of $64.8 million in January, the district has slashed expenses by about $1.8 million, Business Manager Anne Guydish said. However, a budget shortfall of $844,298 remains.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=379219

Allentown Sees 42 Firefighter Retirements

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Allentown officials knew a staggering number of city firefighters would retire in 2011, it was just a matter of how many.

Fire Chief Robert Scheirer predicted months ago that some 50 firefighters would retire before the union’s contract that contained a generous pension clause was set to expire Dec. 31, echoing a similar mass exodus six years ago in the police department.

Now that the paperwork has settled, city officials say 42 firefighters left in 2011 — nearly one-third of the department usually staffed with about 140 firefighters. That’s by far the most firefighter retirees in one year, second only to the departure of 80 police officers six years ago.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-pa-firefighters-retire-20120104,0,7856335.story

Fast Eddie Update

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Our illustrious and soon-to-be ex-governor, Ed Rendell, has announced that only 100 Commonwealth employees will be laid-off as a result of the “budget” passed by the state legislature which counted on money before it was allocated.  Always a bright move!

Fortunately, so many people retired that it cut the number of employees needing furloughed from 1,000 to 100.

Rendell is proposing more spending cuts and taxes to make up for the budget shortfall he and the legislature created by including federal stimulus money in the budget before it was approved on Capitol Hill.

Looking forward to January 1st!  We won’t miss ya Ed.