As you have probably seen or heard in the news, it is the annual budget battle season in Harrisburg right now. Every year I am amazed anew at how little facts seem to matter in comparison to partisan politics in state budget discussions. Our politicians have broken two important– and expensive– funding systems in recent years: the state pension system and the charter school funding system. I put together the graph below to show how much damage these problems do to local East Penn taxpayers. Almost two thirds of the revenue from the district tax increase next year will be eaten up by the increased costs from these two issues alone.
