Slot Lovers Beware!

Local Stuff- Act 72

For those in Pennsylvania familiar with the Act 72 (Slots for Education) initiative... if this does not open your eyes to how horribly corrupt our school systems have gotten then nothing will. In order to receive their allotment of money from the slots revenue, school districts in PA must sign off on the agreement that they will be restricted to limit any tax increase to the rate of inflation, or if they cannot...it must be put to a voter referendum first. To date, only 10 school systems in PA have agreed. The remainder want an extension on the May 30th, 2005 deadline to accept or lose out on involvement in the program to further review the idea. What is there to review? Nothing more than how can we have our pie and eat it to I suggest. In recent local newspaper articles it has been publicly stated that it "concerns the district that the decision of increasing revenue would be left up to the uninformed." Basically - screw you taxpayers we'll decide how much is a fair increase - you just stay out of it. They know full well that if it is up to the taxpayers - they can forget their $60 Million dollar new school - we'd say fix the old one... after all it was good enough for our us. The school boards simply want to figure out how they can get their peice of slots revenue while keeping a firm grip on the level of taxes. Some have even suggested that they would simply raise taxes the maximum rate every year regardless of need so that they can be assured of having a continued bank roll. - It is time for Pennsylvania to enact a school choice program so that parents have the say in where their tax money goes and what schools are performing to the needs of their children. Let's take the power away from the politicians and give it back to the people who care.