Venango County Tea Party Patriots

A non-partisan, non-profit, non-member, association dedicated to educating the public and promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market economics, and all other lawful activities.

Harrisburg

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Township Supervisors Strike Out Against Unfunded Mandates

Pennsylvania’s township officials are taking aim at unfunded mandates, which they say waste millions in tax dollars every year.

Close to 4,000 local leaders attended the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors’ 90th Annual Educational Conference last week in Hershey, where they launched a campaign to eliminate the mandates that Harrisburg and Washington pass on to local governments without accompanying dollars.

Township officials wore green stickers, which featured a rifle’s crosshairs over the words “Unfunded Mandates” throughout the conference.

In particular, PSATS members have set their sights on the state’s outdated legal advertising requirements — studies say reforming these would save municipalities $23 million a year — and the prevailing wage, which can add up to 30 percent to public project costs.

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Harrisburg Set to Default

Harrisburg says it will miss general-obligation bond payments for the first time next week as its receiver seeks approval for a plan to sell assets.

The city, carrying a debt load of more than five times its general-fund budget, will miss $5.27 million in bond payments due March 15 on $51.5 million of bonds issued in 1997, according to a notice its receiver posted on the Electronic Municipal Market Access system, a database for filings by debt issuers.

The default is the latest for the $3.7 trillion municipal market, which has seen the number grow while remaining rare. The rate of U.S. municipal-bond defaults doubled to 5.5 a year in 2010 and 2011, from 2.7 in the previous 39 years, Moody’s Investors Service said this week in a report. Stockton, California, last month voted to default on some of its bonds.

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Is Harrisburg’s Nightmare America’s Future?

The city of Harrisburg is Ground Zero for America’s municipal debt crisis.

Pennsylvania’s capital city has liabilities estimated at $610 million, which is nearly 10 times its annual budget. The city is so deep in the red that last year it attempted to file for bankruptcy. Reckless spending did more than ruin Harrisburg’s balance sheet; it crowded out private industry and distracted from the city’s core functions. Today, Harrisburg is a dangerous, poverty-stricken city, with failing schools and a shrinking population.

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