Taxes

The Borough of Parkside which is controlled by an entirely Republican council all of whom are seeking reelection has raised your taxes the last three years in a row. Do not be fooled by the typical Republican attack line that Democrats will raise your taxes. That being said, we are not foolish and will not make a campaign promise that we will not raise taxes. A Republican pledge that taxes will not be raised cannot be trusted either because they do not have a record of accomplishing this. I

f we are elected the Democratic candidates for council intend to develop the budget in the correct way. We intended to allocate expenditures in the beginning of the year and not exceed those allocations like the existing Borough council has done for the last three years in a row. We intend to implement a number of innovative strategies to mitigate the rising costs of:

Police Protection
Energy
Trash collection
Infrastructure maintenance and improvements

We also intend to grow the business community of Parkside to help bring in additional tax revenue.

Budget Development:

One of the primary problems with the current Parkside budget is the way that it is developed. Each year our paid financial advisor, Joe Possenti (who is also the President of the Aston Township Board of Commissioners-a potential conflict of interest) reviews the expenditures of the previous years and estimates how much will be spent in the upcoming year so that taxes can be collected accordingly. The Borough Council then holds a public meeting, which they do a poor job of informing the public about, and then approves the draft without objection or much discussion. This is not the proper way to prepare a budget. If we are elected to council, each year the council will go through a proper budgeting process. The Police Chief, the Borough Secretary and all members of council who are responsible for various aspects of council government like recreation and public works, should prepare an estimate of what will be needed over the course of the year for that aspect of government. The entire council will then review these budget requests and then establish its priorities for the following year and allocate the budget accordingly. These discussion will be held quarterly and be well publicized to the community.

Budget Expenditure Process:

Another problem with the budget is how money is spent during the year. The current budget breaks down expenditures into categories like recreation, public works, utilities, etc. Theoretically, this is the maximum amount of money that can be spent throughout the year on that category of spending. However, our analysis of the last three years of expenditures shows that frequently the amount allocated for a particular spending category is often exceeded. This essentially means that we don’t really have a budget; we just have an annual taxation fund. If we are elected to council we will keep our spending within the allocated budget for each category of expenses or make offsets that are approved by a vote of council.

Sustainable Environmental Choices result in Sustainable Financial Decisions

One of the underlying philosophies that we will use when making financial decisions is that in general the more environmentally sustainable a decision is, the more financially sustainable the decision will be over the long run. A great example is the Parkside Borough building which was built just a few years ago. If a few construction details had been done differently and an additional 1 to 3% had been spent, the building could use between 10 and 20% less energy each year.

Another example of how unsustainable choices have lead to unsustainable costs is; the rapid rise in trash collection costs (from $65.00 four years ago to $160.00 in 2009 and while 90%+ of the trash created by Borough residents goes into landfills, costs are expected to rise higher when the new contract goes into effect in 2010,). The environment cannot sustain this choice forever and therefore, the cost of waste disposal will continue to go up. The only way to mitigate the rapidly rising cost of trash disposal is develop a comprehensive waste management system which educates and provides incentives to members of the community to reduce the amount of trash that is created by Borough residents and to recycle and compost as much of the remaining waste possible.

We will use the logic of sustainability to make the best decisions for the borough budget. Long term decisions that are environmentally sustainable are also financially sustainable. Short tem unsustainable solutions are not financially sustainable.

Street Lighting Costs

On January 1, 2011, the Rate caps on Pennsylvania electric utilities will expire. Electric rates in the PECO territory are expected to go up by at least 20%. This means that our street lighting budget will also increase by at least 20%. In order for our street lighting budget to remain neutral new street lighting will need to be installed that is at least 20% more efficient. Assuming a grant from the federal or state government could not be secured, if the borough borrowed some money to purchase new light fixtures, the cost of the loan payment plus the reduced electric bills would be equal to electric bills with the existing fixtures for the first two to three years. After that the borough would earn a ‘profit’ in reduced energy costs.
In the process of evaluating this purchase, we intend to research the feasibility of purchasing new self contained high efficiency light fixtures that are powered by solar panels which charge a battery during the day and then run off the battery at night. These fixtures will also be grid connected so that on overcast days or winter days sufficient power will still be available. These are very similar to the solar systems that you see on road signs along I-476 (Blue Route) and other highways. We believe this type of proposal will be attractive to State and Federal grant providers under legislation like the Federal Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act and Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Legislation Act 1. The program managers of these funds are seeking opportunities for investing in community level alternative energy projects like this one.
We would also like to leverage this and other grants to help business start up in Parkside. If a contract to install these lights would be enough business for a start-up company to set up shop along Edgemont Avenue and sign a two year lease, we would be very interested in their proposal. If this project worked out here in Parkside other communities may be interested in purchasing the same product from a business that would exist in our business district and increase our tax revenue.
This idea may not be feasible but it is an example of an innovative idea that we would like to propose and thoroughly research that has potential to save a lot of money, establish a new taxpaying business in our community and reduce our communities’ carbon footprint.

Borough Building Utility Costs

The Borough has budgeted $15,000 this year for utilities on the Borough Building. The electric rates for the building will also increase by 20% in 2011. Our candidate Scott Sidlow who is an Energy Efficiency Analyst, at the request of council in 2007 has done an evaluation of the borough building. He has concluded that the borough building is not very energy efficient and there are many opportunities for improvement. They include an uninsulated crawl space, an under insulated attic and oversized air conditioning, heating and water heating equipment. An energy efficient improvement package should be implemented on the borough building that would include air sealing and insulating the attic and crawl space and reevaluating the heating and cooling systems. The payback period on these improvement should be less than five years. We believe that a comprehensive energy efficiency plan will be very appealing to those who issue currently available state and federal grants.

Waste Management

The cost of garbage disposal has gone up from $65.00 four years ago to $160.00/household this year and it is expected to increase again beginning January 1, when the new waste collection process goes into effect. The Borough spends around $100,000 each year to collect trash and dispose of the borough’s trash. In addition, greater than 90% of the waste created by our community goes into landfills and there are also numerous residents who have complaints about illegal dumping and liter in the community. If elected, we intend to establish a permanent waste management committee that would meet at least quarterly, made up of elected officials, the code enforcement officer, members of the community and business leaders. The committee would have three roles. The first is to educate the residents on the best methods for disposing of every possible type of waste a household may create and to identify innovative and appropriate methods on how households can reduce the trash they consume. The second is to determine how to build a financially sustainable waste management and recycling program. All possible solutions will be researched including single stream curbside recycling, community or backyard composting, recycle bank, pay as you throw, purchasing trash collection equipment and employing staff to collect the trash, applying pressure on retailers to reduce the amount of packaging in products and any other solution any member of the community may propose. The third task of this committee would be to develop comprehensive strategies to eliminate street liter and illegal dumping.