Jan 26, 2015 3 min read

Mt. Lebanon is a mid-sized suburban community just outside of Pittsburgh. On whole, it may be considered middle or upper-middle class. However, individuals from a wide variety of economic backgrounds and circumstances make up its citizenry, ranging from the poor and lower-middle class to the extremely wealthy. Additionally, there are a good number of young families as well as senior citizens, which help to anchor it in the middle class.

However, a small number of elite citizens fashion Mt. Lebanon to be an upper-class community. While small in number, they hold great power through old family and neighborhood connections and alliances. These individuals also hold sway, and sometimes office, within the school board and commission.

To build towards their vision of an upper-class community, these upper-classers have increasingly been asking their citizens to put more and more money into the community pot, largely for school district related activities. For example, someone purchasing a solidly middle to upper-middle class $300,000 house in Mt. Lebanon today can expect to pay approximately $10,000 per year in property taxes, and about $7,000 of that will go directly to MTLSD. This excessive taxation has created a community that is slipping into the “lower-upper class” – in other words, in seeking to look rich, they are actually making the majority of their people look and feel poor.

A more responsible approach would be to look at the actual financial circumstances of one’s residents, and make prudent choices based on that data. Instead, Mt. Lebanon and MTLSD currently look outward, seeking to “look better” than neighboring communities like Upper St. Clair.

While this approach is unsustainable, it continues. In preparing the FY15-16 budget and taxation plan, MTLSD is again initiating budgetary machinations to not only raise taxes again, but to raise them beyond the legal limit set by the state.

I am a former public school teacher, and an advocate of public education. And, indeed, my family did move to Mt. Lebanon four years ago because we heard the school district was good. But this educational Ponzi scheme must stop. Instead of asking, “How good can we look?” it is time for MTLSD to ask, “What do we really need?” Did they really need a new high school building at the cost of over $113 million, or is there a way $60 million would have sufficed? Does a school need every add-on every parent thinks would be good for their individual child, or would only those that serve the largest number of kids suffice?

It is time for MTLSD to make some tough choices, as we all do in our daily lives in light of our own family budgets. With this in mind, I recommend MTLSD make three lists before enacting their next budget: (1) Things That Are Necessary; (2) Things That Are Nice; and (3) Things That Are Precious. It is my guess that, if this task was to be undertaken with an honest eye, MTLSD could cut half-way down the precious list and nothing would be lost academically or socially for its students.

Further, under this more prudent, middle to upper-middle class approach, MTLSD could freeze or cut taxes for the next five years – and avoid sinking our community deeper into lower-upper class status.

Dr. Jason Margolis

Mt. Lebanon