Letter to the editor: 'Investing in children' means more taxes

Property owners in New Kensington-Arnold School District should be seeing red (“New Kensington-Arnold preliminary budget spikes taxes, exhausts reserves,” Dec. 12, TribLIVE): They are being bled to death in school taxes.

Ask the school board: How much did the football field renovation cost? How much money in the budget went to fund textbooks, improve reading, math and science scores, or music education? How many homeowners are leaving the school district, and what is the value of property in New Kensington-Arnold compared to what it was a few years ago?

The response: We need to “invest in the children.” In short, your taxes are about to increase.

Budgets are an allocation plan for scarce resources, but you can tax only so much until taxpayers figure out it is better to move to a lesser-taxed environment.

Presently, I don’t have a dog in this fight, until the discussion turns to merging the Burrell School District with New Ken-Arnold, which is probably being discussed in some smoke-filled back rooms in New Kensington and Harrisburg.

The rationale here is to staunch the bleeding from the toxic liabilities in New Kensington-Arnold by a transfusion of cash from the neighboring school district’s property owners.

When New Kensington-Arnold School District says “It’s only fair that we invest together in our children,” Burrell School District property owners beware — your taxes will soon be going up.

David A. Scandrol

Lower Burrell