Letter to the editor: Penn Hills bailout costing taxpayers

The Penn Hills School District is in debt to the tune of approximately $175 million. Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office said that investigators found gross financial mismanagement.

What is the district doing to erase this massive debt? The answer is to allow the government to bail it out using your hard-earned money (“Penn Hills can’t depend on state money.”

Sen. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, used his position to appropriate $3.3 million, which comes from the state budget, to help bail the district out. The Penn Hills School Board could have helped the situation by increasing property taxes at least 1 mill, like most school districts that are struggling to balance their budgets.

The problem is that the $3.3 million is your money. It is not government money, and the senator just rewarded the district for egregious financial mismanagement with money from each taxpayer in the state with no oversight planned.

Costa should be ashamed of his actions. Instead of being spoon-fed with a big fat check, the district should be paying it back in some way.

The residents of the Penn Hills School District did not create this mess. Mismanagement by the school board and administrators created it. It’s time to pay up.

Bob Brooks

Murrysville

The writer, a Republican, represents the 54th District in the state House.