Budget Surplus

The Abington Board of Commissioners for once has gotten some good news from the township finance officer. Allyn LaRash told the board at Thursday night's meeting that if current trends continued, the township would be looking at a $1.1 million budget surplus at the end of the year. "I'm usually the bearer of bad news when it comes to money," said LaRash, reviewing the township's financial health through the first six months of 1991. "But the way things are going so far, we appear to be in very good shape.

What a difference a city budget surplus makes. One year, you're a mayor who has to trim fire services, close libraries early, and consolidate recreation facilities. The next year or so, you're being hailed for proposing needed investments in the city's cultural treasures, its rebounding neighborhoods, and its waterfront. Having been blamed for rainy fiscal weather during his tenure at City Hall, Mayor Street this week gets to take credit for the sunnier outlook. Credit goes to the mayor's belt-tightening in earlier budgets for helping to generate the city's expected $168 million surplus.

HARRISBURG - Democrats redoubled their efforts yesterday to paint Gov. Corbett and his fellow Republicans as needlessly forcing local tax increases, school layoffs and tuition increases by going forward with a plan to enact deep cuts in aid to public schools and universities while squirreling away surplus cash. Three-quarters of the state's school districts are increasing property taxes, about 11,000 teachers are being laid off and students at 18 state-supported universities may be facing double-digit percentage increases in tuition, said state Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia.

I respond to two side-by-side stories in Section B in the Dec. 13 Inquirer. The first dealt with the second large Pennsylvania budget surplus in two years - no mean feat for the Thornburgh crowd, until you examine the second story and realize where at least part of the alleged surplus came from. "The long, hard life waiting for PHA housing" is the headline on the second story. It tells of interminable waiting on the part of people in dire straits who need housing of some sort to keep their families in some semblance of physical comfort and safety.

For the second year in a row, Tullytown residents will be receiving a substantial tax rebate, thanks to the revenue generated by the landfill in the borough. This year's refund, to come in December, will include money collected through the property, street light and fire taxes. With property taxes currently at 30 mills, and fire and street light taxes at eight apiece, the 46-mill rebate will total close to $230,000. The plan presented before the Borough Council meeting Monday night originally called for the return of only the property tax, but a motion by Councilman Ed Cyzyk to include the other borough taxes as well passed easily, 6-0. With about 2,100 people living in the borough, the rebate would bring an average of about $110 for each person.

As predicted, Philadelphia's budget surplus is down from last year, coming in at $184 million as a result of the national recession and higher school costs. The lower number has no direct impact on this year's $3.1 billion city budget, but officials in Mayor Street's administration say the smaller number - down from $230 million - is a sign that municipal finances are tight. Philadelphia's long-term fiscal prognosis is a matter of dispute. While Mayor Street's top budget aides have warned the city could face a $500 million deficit by 2007, others contend that danger is being overblown.

Philadelphia school board officials yesterday listened to a budget update report that city officials probably dream about. Surplus. That was the word from Irvin R. Davis, the district's managing director, who predicted that the district will have $15.6 million in extra money in its $1.2 billion budget at the end of this fiscal year. But that's where the good news ended. The coming years will be tough, with escalating costs leaving the district up to $192.5 million short by the 1993-1994 fiscal year, said Davis.

Philadelphia housing director Edward A. Schwartz said last week that he would walk to Harrisburg in May to protest what he believes is a lack of state money for housing programs. State Budget Secretary Michael H. Hershock will not tell Schwartz to keep on walking, but he might suggest that he get in line when he gets here - just like everyone else, from college presidents to rape-crisis counselors, who wants more money. In light of the state's projected $275 million year-end surplus, there is no shortage of people who view the state treasury as their little pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Big-city mayors are expected to renew their calls for financial help from the state with an announcement yesterday by the Kean administration that the 1986 New Jersey budget surplus was $102 million more than expected. The announcement came on the heels of a meeting Monday in Newark in which urban mayors appealed to Gov. Kean and legislative leaders to help replace $68 million in lost federal revenue-sharing funds. Senate President John F. Russo, a Democrat from Ocean County, said yesterday that the news of the additional $102 million "reinforces our position that we should use some of that surplus to replace the revenue- sharing losses.

WASHINGTON - President Obama on Monday will nominate Wal-Mart's Sylvia Mathews Burwell as his next budget director, a senior administration official said. If confirmed by the Senate, Burwell would take the helm at the Office of Management and Budget at a time of heated budget battles between the White House and congressional Republicans. She would also bring more diversity to Obama's second-term cabinet following criticism that many top jobs were going to white men. The president will announce Burwell's nomination during a White House ceremony Monday morning, said the official, who requested anonymity in order to confirm the nomination ahead of Obama.

No party line for me Ever since I first registered to vote, I've been an independent. I remember President Bill Clinton leaving office with his head held high and bequeathing our country a budget surplus. No big deal, right? Then 9/11, the Iraqi war (on terror), Afghanistan, tax breaks (including for those making more than eight figures). Suddenly, since 2008, our deficit seems to be spiraling out of control. How and when did our America the Beautiful set off for a one-way trip to hell-in-a-handbasket?

HARRISBURG - Democrats redoubled their efforts yesterday to paint Gov. Corbett and his fellow Republicans as needlessly forcing local tax increases, school layoffs and tuition increases by going forward with a plan to enact deep cuts in aid to public schools and universities while squirreling away surplus cash. Three-quarters of the state's school districts are increasing property taxes, about 11,000 teachers are being laid off and students at 18 state-supported universities may be facing double-digit percentage increases in tuition, said state Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia.

Last year, officials in the tiny Delaware County borough of Norwood raised real estate taxes 34.7 percent, an increase they said was required to prevent the borough from going bankrupt by the summer. Now, Norwood has a different problem, the kind that many a recession-ravaged municipality would love to have: a six-figure surplus. The $327,000 surplus has led some residents to wonder if the council raised taxes too much. George Fieo, treasurer in this borough of about 5,700 people, said he made the best fiscal guess he could, given last year's circumstances.

There is little question that the long-term trends in the federal budget are unsustainable, that the deficit must be reduced, and that the resulting debt must be held at a reasonable level. However, most of the efforts so far have only amounted to dabbling around the edges. If you believe that the problem can be solved by eliminating waste and curtailing discretionary domestic spending, then you are probably a candidate for a course in remedial arithmetic. It is also going to require significant cuts in defense spending, tax increases, and major adjustments to entitlement programs.

BAGHDAD - Iraq might be running a budget surplus, but that doesn't mean it should spend it, U.S. officials said Tuesday, arguing that the Iraqi government's finances are too fragile for it to pay a greater share of its security costs. The Obama administration commented in response to a new U.S. government study that found that Iraq had a surplus of $52.1 billion at the end of 2009, including $11.8 billion available to be spent. The study by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, provided ammunition to lawmakers who have argued that the United States should not run up its own budget deficit to bankroll the Pentagon's military training mission in Iraq.

The approaching resolution of two high-profile court cases is looming over a Gloucester County municipality already wrestling with financial troubles. Officials struggled mightily this summer to craft a budget affordable to the 16,000 residents of Franklin Township, an incongruous 56 square miles of farms and lakes intersecting pockets of houses, trailer parks, and shopping strips anchored by pizzerias. But when they proposed laying off five of the town's 28 police officers, residents complained loudly.

WASHINGTON - President Obama reached Tuesday for the nostalgia of long-gone Clinton-era budget surpluses to soothe debt-weary voters, choosing a Clinton administration budget veteran to run the White House budget office. Obama nominated Jacob J. Lew, now deputy secretary of state, as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Lew, if confirmed by the Senate, would return to the job he held under President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001. Lew's tenure in that role coincided with the last time the government had a surplus, a fact Obama stressed Tuesday in a message aimed at voters who have grown anxious about soaring deficits and debt under Obama's watch.

AS THE Nutter administration and City Council complete their second budget of the recession, a $2.5 million plan to plant 300,000 trees symbolizes the disconnect between the city's fiscal problems and its elected officials. As someone who served briefly as executive director of Fairmount Park, I believe our park system is one of our most undervalued and underappreciated assets. In the best of times, planting more trees should be applauded. But this isn't the best of times. Far from it. Still, the administration's tree proposal was part of a budget that included a 10 percent real estate tax hike.