Concerned Citizens Bethlehem Area School District

CC-BASD'S FOUNDER RUNS FOR SCHOOL DIRECTOR

2011-04-01T12:43:00.011-04:00

Randy Toman

CHALLENGER RANDY TOMAN FOR BETHLEHEM AREA

SCHOOL DISTriICT DIRECTOR

RANDY’S PLATFORM

Key Points

Strive for the best education for your child

Enforce BASD board policies

End irresponsible spending & tax hikes

Seek accountability of the school board

Engage all community stakeholders

Pursue open & clear communication

Stay educated on issues & opportunities

Employ effective planning

Evaluate planning results

CC-BASD’s FOUNDER

CONCERNED CITIZENS-BETHLEHEM AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT

ENDORSES THEIR FOUNDER’S CANDIDACY FOR SCHOOL DIRECTOR.

The organization was formed in 2009. Their Mission is to support and encourage limited government and limited taxation in keeping with our American traditions and founding principles. Initial focus is on the Bethlehem Area School District. CC-BASD is a 527 Corporation.

BLOG SITE - http://www.ccbasd.blogspot.com

Donations may be made to CC-BASD

c/o Patric Shea, Treasurer, CC-BASD

1728 Butztown Road - C-2

Bethlehem, PA 18017-3208

CC-BASD ENDORSES KENNETH BARRETO

2011-04-01T12:35:00.003-04:00

Kenneth Barreto

KENNETH BARRETO FOR BETHLEHEM AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD DIRECTOR

CC-BASD is also endorsing Candidate Kenneth Barreto for Bethlehem Area School Director.

His Mission is -

To reduce the current deficit, without introducing any new tax increases. I would also want to reduce wasteful spending within the school district without hindering the quality of education that the student needs to be a productive member of society. As a citizen, I have come to realize that many of the current school board members lack the will and motivation to do what’s best for the students, and the people of the community. I believe leadership is needed, and I can help provide that leadership. If elected, I will do all I can to help our children of today not have to worry about the school district’s problems of tomorrow.

Please refer to his website for more information about Ken -

http//www.kennethbarreto.com

CC-BASD ENDORSES

2011-04-01T10:46:00.008-04:00

AL BERNOTAS

CC-BASD also endorses

Candidate Al Bernotas for Bethlehem City Council.

Please refer to his website for more information about Al.

http://www.bernotasforcouncil.com/

CC-BASD ENDORSES

2011-04-01T10:40:00.009-04:00

Tony Simao

Candidate Tony Simao for Bethlehem City Council.

Please refer to his website for more information about Tony.

http://www.simaoforcouncil.com

CC-BASD ENDORSES

2011-04-01T10:18:00.009-04:00

THOMAS CARROLL

Candidate Thomas Carroll for

Bethlehem City Council.

Please refer to his website for more information about Tom.

http://www.tomcarrollforcouncil.com

Open Your Eyes America

2010-11-10T15:09:00.002-05:00

What Was He Thinking?

2009-12-03T20:20:00.006-05:00

October 6th, 2009
What Was He Thinking?

How could have Senator Casey not voted to de-fund ACORN? The organization’s employees, in several major cities, are caught on tape appearing to offer support and advice on how to commit illegal activity, including underage illegal immigrant prostitution. This series of investigative video tapes is not the first incident of questionable activity by ACORN employees. The previous list of deplorable actions includes voter registration fraud and using charitable contributions and government money to fund political activity. It is clear that there is something seriously wrong throughout the entire ACORN organization.

The recent vote in the U.S. Senate to stop funding of ACORN was an easy test for our Senators to demonstrate reasonableness and responsibility. Senator Casey failed the test. He embarrassed himself, his state, and his party. Based on this publicly known evidence, Senator Casey should have voted to de-fund ACORN. In addition, he should support a full federal investigation of all aspects of the ACORN organization.

Since Senator Casey so miserably failed this very simple test of legislative responsibility, how can we trust him to effectively represent us on difficult and complex legislative issues? He has lost my confidence and the confidence of many Pennsylvanians. Senator Casey should immediately resign his Senate office. If he does not resign, I am sure that Pennsylvania voters will not fail their simple test the next time Senator Casey is up for election.

Publius II
CC-BASD

Vigilance is Required

2009-12-03T20:08:00.002-05:00

October 7th, 2009
Vigilance is Required!

Over the last several months, the Concerned Citizens of Bethlehem Area School District (CC-BASD) looked very closely at the financial operations and financial strategy of the school district. The picture was not pretty. Numerous short-comings in basic accounting implementation and execution of a flawed tax and spend fiscal policy were identified. The CC-BASD recommended solutions to the observed problems. There was plenty of blame to be shared amongst the administration, the school board, and a distracted public.
Yet, recently, the school board appears to have started to make progress in bringing reason and common sense back to the budget process. So, it was especially disappointing to see a flawed set of five year budget projections produced by the district in September. The following email was sent to the school board, by the CC-BASD, to object to the flawed projections. This serves notice that the citizenry has been awakened and will stay vigilant.

School Board Directors,
I wanted to restate and reinforce our group's comments that we presented at the September 21st, 2009 Regular Board Meeting, about the district's recent five year budget projections. The direction implied in the five year projection analysis presented at a recent Finance Committee Meeting is unacceptable to the tax payer and potentially detrimental to the long term viability and attractiveness of the community. Tax increases in excess of 27% over the next five years should not even be a consideration.

Again, we acknowledge that these five year projections are nonbinding and are just a starting point for planning purposes. In addition, we acknowledge that recent actions by the school board have started to move the district in the right direction. Yet, we are far from being out of the woods.

Projected school property tax increases of over 27% in the next five years strikes fear in the minds of many retired and fixed income property owners. No tax should have the power to leave you homeless. These projections also initiate frustration in young families who are looking to purchase their first home. The tax payers have already been slapped with a 5.1 % tax increase during a recession. Continuous tax increases are not sustainable for all members of the community. The tax payer can not continue to shoulder this extreme financial burden.

The tax and spend budget mind set must be abandoned. A fiscally conservative trend must be embraced over the next five years. The development of a budget scenario process that starts with the assumption of no tax increases and holding the line on the major expense line items is what is needed. As we have highlighted, three expense line items represent over 66% of the total budget. These three items all have significant five year projected increases built into the recent analysis: Other Salaries 14.5%; Teacher Salaries 19.0%; and Employee Benefits 71.4%. These extraordinary increases are unsatisfactory and should not even be considered. The impact of the pension (PSERS) bubble on the horizon will be difficult enough to handle. We have to ensure prudent and thrifty treatment of all other expense line items.

Thank you for your time and dedication to the school district.

As Thomas Jefferson said, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” The CC-BASD is fully prepared to pay that price to bring limited government and individual liberty back to the mainstream of our country.

Publius II
CC-BASD

What is the CCBASD?

2009-12-02T16:33:00.005-05:00

October 6th, 2009
What is the CC-BASD?

The Concerned Citizens of Bethlehem Area School District (CC-BASD) is a non-partisan group that is concerned about the trend of significant growth in all levels of government. The CC-BASD supports the uniquely American founding principles of limited government and individual liberty. Early in 2009, a small group of citizens were shocked by the publicly documented severe financial distress experienced by the Bethlehem Area School District. The combination of proposed tax hikes, significant debt, and unprecedented use of risky financial derivatives was too much to ignore. They founded the Concerned Citizens of Bethlehem Area School District to speak out against the irresponsible financial management of the school district.

In the spring of 2009, reinforcements were provided to the group by the nation-wide grass roots “Tea Party” movement. A fresh group of reasonable liberty loving local Americans joined forces with their like-minded colleagues to expand the reach and influence of the group. The group declared a mission to focus on poorly run and unresponsive government at all levels, starting with the Bethlehem Area School District. The group’s first priority was to develop a thoughtful and detailed assessment of the school district’s major financial issues. The second step was to create a set of very basic and straight-forward recommendations to resolve the identified problems. The third step was to respectively present this package of ideas to the school board, during the June, 2009 public meeting, and offer any help required by the board to implement these specific recommendations. In a future commentary, we will give you a summary of this proposal and an update on the school board’s response and progress.

The CC-BASD’s chosen mode of operation is based on a methodical and logical approach to problem solving. Rational, aggressive, and constructive public debate serves the people best. The group conducts monthly public meetings. This forum provides like-minded individuals with an update on the organization’s activities, an opportunity to express their individual concerns about the creeping loss of liberty in our country, and a brief and informative perspective on relevant current issues.

The CC-BASD will leverage this blog as a vehicle to provide a periodic update of the group’s activities and positions. Buckle up; the ride will probably be bumpy, but certainly worthwhile. The march is on to restore our republic.

Publius II
CC-BASD

"America is Me"

2009-11-14T16:21:00.001-05:00

Ticking Tax Time Bomb in PA

2009-10-21T19:24:00.000-04:00

Publius II of the “Concerned Citizens of Bethlehem Area School District” (CC-BASD) has told us (see below) but I fear not many will hear or pay any attention.
We Shall See.

October 20th, 2009
The Ticking Tax Time Bomb in Pennsylvania

It is called the Pennsylvania Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS). Act 9 and Act 38 were put in place in 2001. It essentially increased school teacher pension benefits by 25% and legislature’s pension benefits by 50%. While increasing the level of defined pension benefit, the legislation also put the tax payer on the hook for a guaranteed investment return increase for the pension fund from 4% to 8.5%, a 112% increase. Under this revised formula, a teacher that previously would have received 80% of their ending salary as their pension benefit will now receive 100% of their ending salary. That is a sweet deal. I bet that you would like a deal like that one.

By state law, every 10 years the pension’s funding level is assessed. If the pension account is determined to be under funded, the tax payer is required to fill that under funded gap. The trigger to cover this under funding of PSERS will soon be upon the Pennsylvania tax payer. That means that under the current PSERS formula, it is reasonable for a teacher to conclude that every dollar they pay in school property taxes is an insurance policy for their sweet pension deal. This probably is only one of the reasons why you do not hear much condemnation of school property tax increases from the teacher’s union.

With this year’s budget debacle now concluded, our legislators’ next two focus areas should be public employee pensions and school property taxes. If the existing systems for both of these items are left intact, they will surely bankrupt us collectively and individually. We need leadership from our elected officials to get us out of this financial mess. More commentary is coming on both of these issues in the near future.

Publius II
CC-BASD

Contact Us

2009-10-21T18:40:00.001-04:00

If you have any questions about our organization or would like to join our mailing list, please contact us at:

ccbasd09@gmail.com

CC-BASD Mission Statement

2009-10-21T18:37:00.003-04:00

CONCERNED CITIZENS OF BETHLEHEM AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT
(CC-BASD)

Mission Statement - July 13, 2009

The CC-BASD is a non-partisan group that is concerned about the trend of significant growth in all levels of government. We support and encourage limited government and limited taxation in keeping with our American traditions and founding principles.

I. Since education is key to the future of our community and our country, our initial focus will be on the Bethlehem Area School District. This focus shall be to foster and grow a healthy School District in Bethlehem, PA by means of achieving a financially balanced budget, lifting our currently underperforming schools to a standard of excellence for students of all backgrounds, the prudent use of available funds and a School Board that is accountable and responsible to the citizens of Bethlehem, PA at all times and which shall never put the District’s funds at undue risk. Here is a specific set of budget guidelines that we are recommending the school board adopt.
We the people of the Bethlehem Area School District petition the school board to incorporate the following perspectives into the annual budget process:
• Demonstrate the interests of the tax payer in developing the annual school budget.
• Increased spending does not automatically equal quality education.
• Raising taxes and borrowing money must only be considered as a last resort, not the first solution.
• Prudent financial management includes a realistic assessment of our community’s finite resources.
1. Prioritize spending requests based on providing a quality education to our students.
2. Evaluate every expenditure and assess the most cost effective way to deliver that service.
3. Fund any new priorities by spending cuts in other areas of the budget.

II. We will also focus on poorly run and unresponsive government entities as circumstances arise that match our priorities.

You can reach CC-BASD at: ccbasd09@gmail.com
(CC-BASD) Concerned Citizens of Bethlehem Area School District