Money from the state that schools can't use

(AP) Gov. Tom Wolf has been beating the drum for more state funding for public education ever since the election campaign of 2014. And, no doubt, school districts would welcome additional revenue from Harrisburg, both to pay for critical classroom needs and to give some relief to weary property owners whose real estate taxes keep going up.
Unfortunately for the districts and their residents, more state money sent to the schools won't be much help if it comes with the same strings that are attached to current school subsidies.
David Matyas, business manager for the Central Bucks School District, recently detailed what actually happens to millions of dollars Harrisburg sends to CB. As Matyas explained during a budget presentation to the school board, "Most of these subsidies are things we can't spend money on. It comes into the left pocket and goes out of the right pocket. The governor gives and the governor takes away, as well."
What happens is this: The state counts as revenue money earmarked for such things as the mandated payments to the school employee pension system, Social Security and property tax relief from gambling.
"They send us a check that we pass through, but they count it as revenue," said board member Paul Faulkner, who described the process as "smoke and mirrors."
Central Bucks estimates it will receive just under $68 million in so-called state revenue toward its 2017-18 budget of $332.2 million. But $24.8 million of that subsidy is a reimbursement for half of the district's $49.6 million payment to PSERS, the Public School Employees' Retirement System. Another $5.8 million of the state money goes to pay half of the district's $11.6 million in Social Security taxes. And casino money that totals about $5 million merely offsets the same amount homeowners aren't paying in property taxes.
All of that money — over half of what the state sends to Central Bucks — arrives already spoken for. "We can't spend it; we can't touch it; we can't do anything with it," said Faulkner. "It's not our money. It's frustrating."
Faulkner went on to say that when state lawmakers "claim they have increased our revenue for the year, when they say they've increased our budget by X percentage, you need to get into the weeds to find out what that really means."
What it means is nothing good for Central Bucks, nor for every other school district that supposedly receives state money that in reality it doesn't get to spend on education or anything else. The problem of Pennsylvania's underfunding its public schools apparently is even more serious than it appears at first glance.
Add this to the to-do list for the Legislature and the governor. Increasing state funding for the schools will be an empty gesture as long as the money is spent before it arrives.
The (Doylestown) Intelligencer