Anger rising over Mercer County school boards' spending

If a recent flurry of letters to The Herald is any indicator, Mercer County residents are increasingly angry at school boards. Out of touch with economic reality, school board members across the county have raised taxes for property owners and bumped already exorbitant salaries for wealthy school administrators. Even the left-leaning Herald editorial board is in on the criticism; an Op-Ed essay urged taxpayers to "rise up and say they aren't going to take it anymore."

I expect that fiscal conservatives will indeed assert themselves, starting with municipal elections next year. School board seats will be lost by incumbents who have placed administrative salary increases before the interests of Mercer County residents, many of whom are struggling to pay the bills they already have. Here in Grove City, where I live, people are already urging me to mount a school board campaign based first and foremost on cutting the school budget and freezing administrative salaries in particular.

It's a position I have long advocated: schools should not raise taxes, then turn around and hand out salary increases to principals and administrators, many of whom make as much as 3-4 times the county's median salary. For years I have equated property taxes to legalized theft. If you must pay a tax each year on a house that you "own," then you don't really own your house, do you? You are renting it from the government. Home ownership should be one of the tenets of a free society, a bedrock of liberty in our communities. There should be no recurring property tax. I also agree with the Herald's praise of West Middlesex school board member Tom Hubert, who was the lone holdout against administrative raises in that school district.

Yet there is another side to the school budget mess. The state has done next to nothing to remedy the rising property tax debacle. Instead, our "leaders" in Harrisburg have chosen to ignore the issue, forcing localities to fend for themselves in funding schools. How long has Sen. Bob Robbins been in Harrisburg? And why has he done absolutely nothing to reform the state budget and possibly shore up new sources of revenue for local school districts?

Roberta Biros, our independent candidate for the state senate, said on this very blog that school districts and local municipalities need to balance their own budgets, not expect dysfunctional Harrisburg to get its spending priorities in order. I agree with this. I also think there is an answer to the wastefulness of our entrenched state-level politicians who care more about getting elected than about making tough, smart fiscal decisions: we should vote those politicians out of office.

Irresponsible school board members will fall in next year's election, of that I am sure. For instance, I'll do my part to make sure longtime tax-and-spenders like Grove City school board members Bob Montgomery and Jim Crow are voted out, once and for all.

Yet Mercer County voters can do something this year to ensure that fiscal responsibility returns to government. Replacing Robbins with Mrs. Biros is the first step to real reform. Roberta has made top-down fiscal conservatism a top priority. So let's put Roberta Biros at the top, and be done with Bob Robbins for good.

Read The Herald's anti-taxes essay here

Read about the Roberta Biros plan for more responsible government here