December News Digest

December 29, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda and Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg Finalizes Budget

Harrisburg last month passed a 2018 budget did not raise city tax rates, but added a number of new salaried positions and approved millions of dollars in capital investments.

The final budget did not differ much from that proposed by Mayor Eric Papenfuse in late November, which leveraged higher revenue from a growing tax base to increase the city’s operating budget from $61 million last year to $65 million in 2018. The city will also spend $9.2 million from its cash reserves, which will cover a $2 million debt payment and $7.2 million in capital improvement projects.

Expenditures in 2018 will increase in two main categories: personnel and capital projects.

On the personnel front, the city budgeted for $32.5 million in salaries compared to $31 million in 2017. That figure, which excludes healthcare costs, will create seven new management positions and two new sanitation positions. The budget permits the Fire Bureau to make five hires and the Police Bureau to recruit 20 new officers.

The additional personnel funds will also increase salaries for two positions in the law bureau and award raises to sanitation workers represented by the AFSCME union.

The city defines a capital project as any expenditure exceeding $5,000. In 2018, proposed capital projects include $1 million on new radios and patrol cars for police, $700,000 for work on the 15th Street police substation and $80,000 for police body cameras. About $450,000 will go towards renovating city playgrounds, and projects to renovate Reservoir Park will receive almost $1 million thanks to a last minute cash transfer by Council.

Composting Plan to Proceed

Harrisburg intends to move ahead with plans to build a composting facility in Susquehanna Township, despite continued opposition from some township residents.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse said that the city will apply for a facility permit with the state Department of Environmental Protection this month. If DEP grants the permit, which Papenfuse believes it will, the city will begin to convert the site to a compost facility.

City officials have campaigned to build a composting facility at 1850 Stanley Rd. since summer 2017. After they were met with fierce opposition from some residents in Susquehanna Township, they agreed to delay the permit application until they had more public support. Over the following months they hosted informational sessions and visits to comparable sites to teach residents about composting.

Papenfuse made his final pitch at a township board of commissioners meeting last month, at which several township residents expressed opposition. Nonetheless, he said he believes the project has won enough support in the community to proceed.

“There’s a handful of people from the neighborhood who oppose it, but it’s not overwhelming,” he said.

Papenfuse told the crowd that composting leaves and lawn waste—which essentially involves letting the material decompose into the ground—does not carry any risks to humans, soil or water sources.

Some residents claimed that the facility would create odors or mar neighborhood views. Others worried about noise from the machinery and increased traffic from the Public Works Department trucks that transport the waste.

Papenfuse assured residents that the site would be unobtrusive when it opens. Public Works vehicles will use mostly Harrisburg roads to get to the site, and employees will operate the machinery on a limited, set schedule.

Allison Hill Substation

The Harrisburg Police Bureau is on track to open a police substation in Allison Hill in late summer 2018, but officials said last month that it would not be open around the clock.

During a hearing on the 2018 budget, Police Chief Tom Carter and Capt. Derric Moody told City Council that the substation will not operate 24/7 or have civilian staff when it opens in August.

Police may expand operations at the substation as they grow their ranks. The city hopes to hire 20 new officers and a community policing coordinator next year.

“Our goal is to have full service there, but, realistically speaking, we can’t currently achieve that with the manpower we have,” Moody said.

The plan is to use the substation as a staging area for specialized police units and an outpost for officers responding to calls in Allison Hill. The 1,600-square-foot building on S. 15th Street will include a space for police trainings and community meetings, as well as a squad room, break room, equipment room and locker room with showers.

It will also have an area for a receptionist, though there are currently no plans to hire one. Members of the public will be able to enter the substation for public meetings or interviews with police officers, but will not have access the same administrative services as the Public Safety headquarters downtown.

“We’re trying to provide a central location for officers,” Moody said.

Act 47 to Continue

Harrisburg is likely to spend another three years in the state’s Act 47 program for financially distressed municipalities, according to a state advisor who oversees the city’s finances.

Marita Kelly, Harrisburg’s Act 47 coordinator for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, last month praised the city’s “many achievements” since it entered Act 47 in 2011.

However, she believes that the city will not be able to afford to exit the program at the end of 2018, when it becomes eligible. While it would regain independent financial oversight, it would stand to lose some $13 million in revenue without the extra taxing authority allowed under the program.

Kelly added that Harrisburg has avoided some of the problems that plague other third-class cities across the state, such as difficulty financing legacy payments—healthcare and benefit payments for current and retired employees.

Bruce Weber, the city’s budget and finance director, reported that two of the city’s pension accounts are fully funded, but a third fund for police pensions is causing some concern.

“We only have one that’s slightly in distress,” Weber said. “We are contributing to it every year.”

Kelly will make a formal recommendation for Harrisburg’s Act 47 status in March. The only condition that would enable the city to exit the program would be a change to the third-class city code or a set of special taxing provisions for the city approved by the state legislature.

County Taxes Hold Steady

The Dauphin County commissioners last month passed a 2018 budget that keeps property taxes steady for a 13th consecutive year.

The three-person board passed a $241 million budget that contains no increase in the county portion of the property tax, which will remain unchanged at 6.876 mills.

The county does expect to spend more than it takes in for 2018, but plans to use as much as $12.5 million in reserve funds to make up the shortfall. The county stated that it still expects to have a reserve fund balance of about $25 million by the end of 2018.

Last year, Dauphin County also balanced its budget by dipping into its reserve fund. It estimated that it would spend $12.5 million in reserves, but will only spend about $5.2 million by year-end, according to current county estimates.

The county stated that it will add funds to the county coroner’s office in 2018 to deal with the rise in opioid-related deaths. Last year, there were 85 overdose deaths in the county, but the coroner expects more than 100 by Dec. 31.

Sewer Projects Begin

Capital Region Water began a new round of sewer replacement and improvements last moth, affecting several neighborhoods in Harrisburg.

Andrew Bliss, community outreach manager, said CRW is staggering the $700,000 project through the end of January. In all, CRW will repair more than 800 feet of aging and broken sewer mains and manholes at five locations.

The individual projects are:

– Mid-December to early January
S. 13^th Street, between Market Street and Howard Street
New manhole, 18 feet of new sewer pipe

– End of December to early January
Cameron and Market streets
Spray on concrete liner, 18-inch sewer pipe

– Early January to end of January
Magnolia Street between Cameron and 12^th streets
New manhole on Cameron Street, pipe lining

– Mid-January to end of January
Derry Street between 13^th and 14^th Streets
New manhole, 13 feet of pipe, pipe lining

– Mid-January to end of January
Fulton and Hamilton streets
New manhole connection

Potential impacts of the construction include street closures, parking restrictions, construction noise and temporary sewer service interruptions. When the pipe replacement is complete, the road will be temporarily patched until final street restoration is completed in the spring of 2018, Bliss said.

Customers with questions can contact Capital Region Water by phone at 888-510-0606 or by email at [email protected].

So Noted

Harrisburg School Board last month tabled a motion on whether to search for a new school district superintendent. The board is expected to revisit the issue again later this year, as Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney’s contract expires in June.

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology last month unveiled its new, expanded campus in central Philadelphia. HU is sharing the 38,000 square feet of space at 1500 Spring Garden St. with Hussian College.

Harrisburg Young Professionals last month selected Suzanne Patackis as president of the 2018 executive board, replacing outgoing President Joe Tertel. HYP also announced that Jeff Copus and Adeolu Bakare will serve as co-vice presidents, Brittany Brock as secretary and Jeremy Scheibelhut as treasurer.

UPMC Pinnacle last month named Dr. James Raczek as its new chief medical officer. In that role, Raczek leads quality and safety programs, medical education and medical staff relationships and contributes to strategic planning and implementation.

Changing Hands

Barkley Lane, 2502: US Bank National Assoc. to S. Vetock, $32,000

Barkley Lane, 2507: R.C. Medellin to R. Medellin, $48,000

Boas St., 406: A. Heisey to S. Higginbotham, $115,000

Briggs St., 270: M. Ennis to E. & A. Williams, $228,000

Brookwood St., 2435: R. House to I. & K. Mita, $56,000

Calder St., 262: J. Goldberg to R. Yaegle, $118,000

Calder St., 500: W. Tatar to S. Hoffman, $125,000

Conoy St., 115: A. & C. Stoudt to R. Rodino, $145,000

Conoy St., 121: A. Spisask to K. Russell, $92,500

Cumberland St., 214: D. & E. Zampogna to M. Santalucia, $141,000

Fulton St., 1709: J. Ganeva to C. Messner, $110,000

Green St., 1624: K. Lewis to P. & M. Rowan, $192,000

Green St., 1817: T. & L. Sopcak to B. Scelta, $129,000

Green St., 1826: D. & J. Kalbach to D. Ober, $165,000

Industrial Rd., 3300: Pennsylvania Terminals Corp. to 3300 Industrial Road Associates LP, $865,000

Market St., 1923: K. Griffith to D. Thomas, $70,000

Mercer St., 2430: PA Deals LLC to R. Buehner, $63,900

Mercer St., 2464: C. Hobbs to T. & J. Knaub, $60,000

North St., 232: E. Finkelstein to G. Kramer, $125,000

N. 2^nd St., 812: A. Meoli to Diocese of Harrisburg, $212,000

N. 2^nd St., 2234: Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. to C. Eisner, $43,200

N. 2^nd St., 2527: GRSW Stewart Real Estate Trust to K. & D. Maltzie, $174,000

N. 2^nd St., 3211: E. & J. Daschbach to K. McRae, $99,900

N. 3^rd St., 925: D. Bobinchek & 921 Home LLC to 921 Home LLC, $105,000

N. 3^rd St., 2340: T. Wadlinger to D. & S. Houck, $168,265

N. 5^th St., 2736: PA Deals LLC to MidAtlantic IR LLC & Jennifer Fernandes IRA, $63,000

N. 13^th St., 139: Falco Inc. to Round the Horn LLC, $45,000

N. 16^th St., 914: J. & H. Wilbur to JB2 Properties LLC, $59,900

N. 16^th St., 916: PA Deals LLC to Z. Kissinger, $69,900

N. 17^th St., 1122: MBHH RE LLC to S. Garcia, $31,000

Peffer St., 228: N. & L. Chohany to B. Matuszny, $173,000

Peffer St., 263: Members 1^st Federal Credit Union to E. Patry, $49,900

Penn St., 1715: S. Dunn to BencMarq Holdings LLC, $77,001

Pennwood Rd., 3160: J. & M. Bush to T. Wylie, $150,000

Rumson Dr., 2983: C. Shenk to J. Jones, $69,000

S. 14^th St., 314: J. Reichwein to E. & B. Katz, $62,000

S. 14^th St., 1415: D. Fahie to City of Harrisburg, $47,000

S. 14^th St., 1419: H. & C. Pollard to City of Harrisburg, $50,000

S. 14^th St., 1439: R. & S. Dighe to City of Harrisburg, $50,000

S. 16^th St., 435: M. Bui to L. DiGiacomo & M. Ganci, $48,000

S. 17^th St., 140: Allison Hill Partners LLC to Hamilton Health Center Inc., $250,000

S. River St., 304: D. Havior to D. Ogden & Pear Tree Revocable Trust, $40,000

State St., 1406: R. & A. Sharp to JRC Properties, $80,000

Susquehanna St., 1614: J. & S. DeMuro to S. Brandon & L. Fisher, $152,000

Susquehanna St., 1701: R. Ambrose to R. Covington & T. Pean, $137,000

Susquehanna St., 1711: Susquehanna Valley Properties to N. DeMuro, $113,000

Harrisburg property sales for November 2017, greater than $30,000. Source: Dauphin County. Data is assumed to be accurate

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

December 28, 2017 | by Sara Bozich

Happy Weekend!

Please excuse the abbreviated Weekend Roundup. I have a pretty good reason.

It’s a light week due to the holidays but hit me on IG or on the Facebook Group if you need a recommendation for New Year’s Eve.

Our tradition has been low-key long before baby: massages, pedicures, sushi and me falling asleep before midnight, followed by our annual New Year’s Day party, loaded with pork, kraut and hangover cures for our guests. Stay tuned for my post on this.

What are you doing this weekend?

(more…)

TheBurg Podcast: Budgets and School Board Edition

December 22, 2017 | by TheBurg Staff

As the year comes to a close and holiday indulgences beckon, TheBurg editor Larry Binda and city reporter Lizzy Hardison recap the week in news and look ahead to 2018. In this episode, they discuss the city’s finalized budget, which will make some exciting project possible in the new year. They also examine the debate surrounding Harrisburg City Schools superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney, whose contract is up for renewal in 2018. The School Board isn’t sure she deserves another term. Lizzy describes a showdown that took place at last week’s board meeting and explains why Knight-Burney drew fire for supporting a school voucher program in 2011. Plus, Lizzy and Larry round out the year’s top news stories.

Stream the episode on SoundCloud or download it in your Apple or Android podcast app.

Be sure to ring in the new year with the next issue of theBurg, which comes out Friday, Dec. 29.

Read reporting mentioned in this episode:

In the Books: Harrisburg Council makes a few tweaks, passes 2018 budget.

All Heat No Fire: Divided Harrisburg school board delays vote on superintendent’s future.

To Re-hire or Not? Pro-voucher video surfaces as Harrisburg school board considers Knight-Burney’s future.

Citing low manpower, police dial back plans for Allison Hill substation.

As Harrisburg finalizes its 2018 budget, officials hear a forecast for Act 47.

Exit Strategy: Harrisburg seeks assistance as it eyes leaving Act 47.

More Art, Music: H*MAC gets state grant to help complete Midtown facility.

December 22, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

H*MAC partner John Traynor stands on the restored balcony overlooking the Capitol Room.

A major Harrisburg arts venue is the big winner locally in the annual competition for state redevelopment funds.

The House of Music, Arts & Culture (H*MAC) will receive $1 million from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), a state program that provides grants for the acquisition and construction of projects deemed important for their cultural, economic, civic and historical significance.

John Traynor, a founding partner, said that the money will help H*MAC (formerly known as the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center) complete the restoration of its building at N. 3^rd and Herr streets in Harrisburg.

“I’m very, very pleased,” he said. “This grant is more than a grant to us. It’s a stamp of approval to all the hard work that’s gone into finishing this project.”

A decade ago, Traynor and two partners bought the dilapidated building at 1110 N. 3rd St., formerly the home of the Harrisburg Jewish Community Center and, later, the Harrisburg Police Athletic League.

They initially built out a small performance space and bar on the lower level and opened it as Stage on Herr. They later completed a restaurant and larger bar, the Kitchen at H*MAC, on the main level and then a larger performance space on the upper level now called the Capitol Room.

Traynor said that the RACP grant will allow them to finish restoration of the 10,000-square-foot basement level, turning it into a music school, studio and production facility that he likens to a “School of Rock” concept. It also would permit H*MAC to build a semi-enclosed bar and restaurant area on the roof of the building and complete patio and façade improvements.

“We believe this will be the gem in the crown of Harrisburg, “ he said, adding that this next phase of work would proceed through 2018.

H*MAC received only about one-third of the $3.3 million it applied for, though few projects that are awarded funding receive the full amount. Traynor said that he believed the grant could be leveraged to give him access to additional funds so that the center would be functionally complete.

When H*MAC is finished, Traynor expects to employ more than 80 people, compared to about 30 currently, he said.

In Dauphin County, only two other projects were selected in this round of RACP funding.

Hershey Towne Square received $750,000 for a three-story parking garage. It had requested $2.5 million for the project.

The Salvation Army, Harrisburg Capital City Region, was given $500,000 for its new 39,000-square-foot facility at 29^th Street and Rudy Road. It had requested $4.5 million.

“It wasn’t our full request, but we’re very happy to receive this grant,” said Kathy Anderson-Martin, director of resource development.

The grant also may help the Salvation Army leverage other matching funds, she said, raising more money.

Anderson-Martin said her organization has raised about $8 million of a total construction cost of $11 to $12 million. This should allow them to break ground on the facility in the spring or summer of 2018. Already, the site has been cleared and most design work completed, she said.

In all, there were 10 applicants in Dauphin County in this round. The eight applicants denied funding so far are:

The City of Harrisburg, $14.3 million for a bridge over the railroad tracks at Division Street
Harrisburg City Islanders, $5 million for a new stadium in Lower Swatara Township
Harristown Enterprises, $3 million to construct a six-story building at 21 S. 2nd St. in Harrisburg
Christian Recovery Aftercare Ministries, $650,000 for renovation of its Uptown Harrisburg building
Tri-County Housing Development, $1 million for Hummel Street redevelopment
Mulberry Street Properties, $322,311 for Allison Hill revitalization
Hawthorne SPE, $5 million for its Progress and Linglestown Traditional Neighborhood District project in Susquehanna Township
Whitaker Center, $5.5 million for a major renovation of its building in downtown Harrisburg

In Cumberland County, the Carlisle Family YMCA was the only successful applicant among five total, receiving $1.5 million, half of its request, for an addition to its facility.

Projects denied funding in the initial round sometimes receive funding in a later round or reapply for the following year.

In all, the state funded 149 projects for almost $188 million in this round, compared to requests for 399 projects worth $1.7 billion.

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

December 21, 2017 | by Sara Bozich

Happy Weekend!

Please excuse the abbreviated Weekend Roundup. I have a pretty good reason.

What are you doing this weekend?

(more…)

In the Books: Harrisburg Council makes a few tweaks, passes 2018 budget.

December 19, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg City Council tonight as it discussed the 2018 municipal budget.

Harrisburg City Council voted tonight to approve a $72 million budget for 2018, which will hold tax rates steady and allocate millions of dollars to capital improvements in the new year.

The budget that passed 6-1 tonight largely resembles the one proposed by Mayor Eric Papenfuse in late November, though council did decide to withdraw an additional $714,000 from the city’s cash reserves for park and playground improvements. That will bring the city’s total reserve spending in 2018 to $9,234,000, since the original budget proposed withdrawing $2 million for debt services and $6.52 million for capital improvements.

“While we’re investing in public safety, blight and infrastructure, we’re also providing nurturing environments for children so they have spaces to grow and play,” Councilman Cornelius Johnson said. “These are lifelong investments that can benefit the citizens of Harrisburg.”

The additional cash withdrawal will finance a new chutes and ladders playground at Reservoir Park, which the city originally planned to build in 2019. The 2018 budget had also earmarked $250,000 for planting meadows at that park, but council reallocated those funds to the playground project. The Department of Parks and Recreation will also receive $450,000 for renovations at five city playgrounds: Norwood-Holly, Cloverly, Summit Terrace, Penn and Sayford and 4^th and Dauphin.

Council also authorized a $10,000 transfer from the city’s Host Fund to the Planning Bureau. Councilwoman Ausha Green motioned to reallocate the money so the bureau can hire an outside consultant to edit the city’s draft comprehensive plan. The allocation passed 7-0.

Councilwoman Shamaine Daniels attempted to strike down proposed salary raises for members of the city’s Law Bureau. Daniels said that the raises should be postponed until council considered a salary ordinance in the new year. Her motion to revert the salaries failed after none of her colleagues moved to second it. Daniels then cast the only vote against the budget.

In addition to salary raises for the Law Bureau employees, the budget will also raise salaries for managers in the Sanitation Department and create new pay grades for sanitation workers represented by the AFSCME union. AFSCME members came to Tuesday’s budget vote to advocate for council to approve the raises and the allocations for new sanitation equipment.

“Knowing that someone acknowledges your work and that you’re doing a good job, it makes you want to go to work a little more,” said sanitation driver Jason Jackson after the vote.

The 2018 budget forecasts $65 million in revenue, up $4 million from this year. Papenfuse attributed that increase to a growing tax base, since revenues from real estate, local services and earned income taxes all exceeded projections this year.

The city will end 2017 with more than $20 million in its cash reserve fund. A $7.2 million withdrawal from that fund will finance capital improvement projects in every department of city government. Some of the line items for those projects include:

$700,000 for the Police Bureau to construct a new substation on S. 15^th Street, which will open part-time in August 2018.
$250,000 for the Codes Bureau to double its in-house demolition capacity.
$80,000 for the Police Bureau to purchase body cameras.
$30,000 for the IT Bureau to host Harrisburg police video server
$1.2 million for the Fire Bureau to replace roofs at three stations.
$425,000 for the Public Works department to construct ADA-compliant wheelchair ramps throughout the city.

The 2018 budget anticipates a $1 million fund balance at the end of the new year. It also outlines priority expenses for 2019 and 2020, including $550,000 for an Uptown/Midtown police station and $1.3 million for Reservoir Park redevelopment.

The city will balance those priorities while planning for Harrisburg’s exit from Act 47, which could happen as early as 2019. In a budget hearing last week, however, Marita Kelly, a state overseer, told city officials that Harrisburg will likely need to seek a three-year extension to its Act 47 status.

Council members and administrators have acknowledged that the city cannot afford to give up the special taxing privileges that Act 47 confers.

All Heat No Fire: Divided Harrisburg school board delays vote on superintendent’s future.

December 18, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

The Harrisburg school board

The former president of the Harrisburg school board sparred tonight with the man who unseated her, alleging that he failed to inform her of a last-minute agenda item.

School board Vice President Danielle Robinson, who served as president until she was ousted in a vote last week, called for the board to table a resolution that would start the process of hiring a new superintendent.

Robinson said that the board failed to follow proper procedure and discuss the resolution in committee. She accused new board President Judd Pittman of adding it to the agenda without telling her.

“This board deserves the respect of not having something slipped in last minute, because you know everything else on this agenda has gone through a committee,” Robinson said.

She claimed that she heard about the resolution on social media before she heard about it from the board.

Pittman said he reached out to Robinson to discuss the matter. She called him a liar and said he never followed through to tell her about it.

The exchange foreshadowed the contentious debate that will likely take place this spring, when the board will consider renewing the contract of current Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney. Her four-year contract, which carries a $179,208 annual salary, is set to expire in June.

The board can renew Knight-Burney’s contract for another four years or open the position to a competitive hiring process in which she can participate. The state public school code says the board must start the hiring process at least 90 days prior to the day her contract expires, but Harrisburg’s policy requires 150 days.

Robinson also argued that the board should take its time with the resolution for the sake of three members who were sworn in last week. Robinson said that they needed more time to make an informed decision about Knight-Burney’s tenure. Board member Matt Krupp objected.

“It’s unfortunate that this board did not discuss this prior, but I think our members are all well informed and all pay attention enough to vote on this,” Krupp said. “We don’t need to wait.”

The board voted 6-3 in favor of Robinson’s motion, moving the resolution into a committee for discussion. Board members will determine then whether or not to include the item on a future agenda.

The board also tabled a resolution concerning sanitation employees who are represented by the AFSCME union. The resolution would “provide the district with the option” to transfer sanitation workers from the district payroll to the payroll of Aramark, a contractor. AFSCME representative Nichelle Chivis claimed the resolution would violate the collective bargaining law.

“If this goes through, I will file charges,” Chivis said. “The district is attempting to circumvent its responsibilities under the collective bargaining agreement.”

Interim Chief Financial Officer Jim Snell said the item was meant to apply only to AFSCME employees who left the union and sought part-time employment with Aramark.

“I will readily admit that it’s worded very awkwardly, but the intent is the intent,” Snell said.

Board member Percel Eiland motioned to send the resolution back to the Budget, Finance and Facilities Committee to amend the language and avoid a contractual violation. The motion passed 8-1.

Also today: Video surfaces of Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney speaking at a pro-school voucher rally.

To Re-hire or Not? Pro-voucher video surfaces as Harrisburg school board considers Knight-Burney’s future.

December 18, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg School District Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney speaks at a 2011 pro-voucher rally at the state Capitol, with then-Sen. Jeff Piccola (from a screen shot)

Should the leader of a struggling public school district support a student’s choice to leave it?

That’s one of the questions facing the Harrisburg School Board of Directors and Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney, who, in 2011, made remarks at the state Capitol supporting a school voucher program. Knight-Burney’s contract with the district is up for renewal in 2018, and the board is meeting tonight to consider her future with the district.

A YouTube clip from 2011 shows Knight-Burney, then the acting superintendent of Harrisburg schools, at a rally in the Capitol Rotunda for Senate Bill 1, a limited-school voucher program. The bill would have allowed low-income students from poor and failing school districts to obtain vouchers to attend private schools. It passed through the Senate but was struck down by the House later that year.

Proponents of school voucher programs say they expand access to private schools and allow low-income students a path out of failing districts. But critics, which include most public school educators and administrators, say they exacerbate problems in under-resourced schools by depriving them of state and federal funds.

At the 2011 rally, Knight-Burney acknowledged that her position on the bill put her at odds with most of the public school community. She addressed a cheering crowd while flanked by school students, lobbyists and legislators, including then-Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, who sponsored the bill.

“This is not about pitting private schools against public schools or saying one is better,” Knight-Burney said. “It’s about providing opportunities of choice for all parents as they seek out educational alternatives… it’s about empowering families to make the best choice for their families.”

Knight-Burney went on to say that the schools have an urgent need to raise student achievement levels. As an educator and a mother, she said, she knows that parents care “more than anyone” about their child’s education.

“Parents and children are consumers of education and should be free to choose the educational product that works best for their child,” she said. “This opportunity should be affordable to all parents no matter what economic level they are categorized in.”

In school choice programs like the one proposed in SB1, a student who is dissatisfied with her public school district can apply to obtain a voucher – essentially a coupon that represents the money that child’s school district would have spent to educate her in public school. The child’s family can then apply the voucher to tuition at another school, including a religious or private school.

The value of the student vouchers is proportional to a school district’s spending-per-pupil. In the Harrisburg school district, that spending is close to $17,000 per student per year. The voucher does not take any local funding out of the district, but does divert the state and federal dollars used to educate the child.

That means that, in Harrisburg schools, almost half of the dollars used to educate a student could leave the district. The school district received 40 percent of its revenue from local sources and 48 percent came from state funding in 2015, according to data from WHYY. Voucher amounts would also be adjusted for the income level of the student’s family.

Knight-Burney was not available for comment on Monday.

Burg Blog: Turn It Out

December 15, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

A polling location on State Street in Harrisburg.

Recently, I received an email from a Derry Township resident with the thesis that county Judge Lori Serratelli lost her race last month because of poor voter turnout in Harrisburg.

The writer further pinned blame on the Dauphin County Democrats, saying the county committee didn’t do enough to get its voters, especially in Harrisburg, to the polls.

Indeed, voter turnout in Harrisburg in the general election last month was abysmal at about 18 percent of registered voters. However, I disputed the notion that the blame lay primarily with the committee’s efforts (or lack thereof), as many other factors played into the low turnout and, thus, Serratelli’s loss by 1,665 votes to John McNally for the last of three judgeships at stake.

Harrisburg’s high levels of transience and poverty are practically a formula for low turnout, a problem exacerbated last month by the lack of passion in the uncontested mayoral and council elections. All the energy, I wrote back to him, was in the primary election back in May. Having said that—if the general election turnout among Democrats had matched the primary’s turnout (still a lousy 23 percent), Serratelli still would have lost by a few hundred votes.

Nonetheless, I consider my e-mailer’s point well taken since, to me, election turnout is the single most important (and often most ignored by pundits) factor in determining who represents us. Does gerrymandering, big money or, now, Russian bots help sway elections? To some extent. But getting voters to the polls is a much more critical factor.

This point was driven home to me on Tuesday night as I watched the special election results roll in from the distant state of Alabama. Before then, I knew almost nothing about voter demographics in Alabama because, well, why would I? But, after a few hours of watching cable news coverage, I could converse pretty intelligently about Mobile versus Baldwin counties, the importance of the so-called black belt and the changing nature of the state’s suburbs.

By the end of the evening, I was most struck by all the blue on the map, which indicated that a majority of voters in a county had voted for the Democrat Doug Jones over the Republican Roy Moore. I wondered: Where the heck did all these blue voters come from, and where had they been hiding all these years?

To me, there it was—proof that plenty of Democratic votes existed in even the reddest of red states. That vote just needed to be mined.

A similar dynamic played out last year, only in reverse. In Pennsylvania, I never imagined that there were enough dormant or persuadable GOP votes to hand the state over to Donald Trump.

In the months before the 2016 general election, I would drive outside of Harrisburg and see long rows of Trump signs, seemingly on every lawn and barn, like some contagion had spread down one rural highway and up the next. I dismissed this, stuck in the conventional wisdom that these probably were not new voters and that, in these sparsely populated areas, there wouldn’t be enough of them to make a difference anyway.

I was wrong and then equally wrong thinking that this state couldn’t possibly flip so abruptly in just four years.

In both the Jones/Moore and Trump/Clinton cases, one could point to the weaknesses of the losing candidates. True enough, though both Moore and Hillary Clinton had large groups of passionate supporters, as well. They both lost very narrowly and may well have won if they had run better campaigns, not assumed victory and continued to dig ever deeper into their pools of persuadable voters.

Indeed, Moore performed quite well in most of white, rural Alabama, with his turnout better than one would expect from a special election in an off-off year. It just wasn’t to the level of the Trump mania that had swept over that demographic last year, a weakening that should have been anticipated.

And that brings me back to Dauphin County.

Long a Republican stronghold, Dauphin County is now majority Democratic (D’s 81,816, R’s 73,825 as of November). Yet Republicans still own the county, occupying every row office (nine of them) and controlling the board of commissioners and the courthouse. Why?

Demographics and socioeconomics certainly are reasons, as Republican voters tend to be older, whiter, wealthier and less transient, which all means higher rates of voting. These factors helped sink Judge Serratelli, a highly regarded jurist who likely lost simply because she had a “D” after her name.

But the county’s Democrats as a whole—the party, the candidates and the voters—are largely to blame.

Yes, the Democratic Party in Dauphin County has structural and demographic issues that are difficult to overcome. However, Democrats also hold a significant registration lead, and the county’s trend towards greater urbanization should increasingly work in their favor.

Put simply, the votes are out there for the Democrats. It’s now up to the party, its activists and its nominees to dig deep and mine every last one—and not just in Harrisburg but countywide. That will take time, money, commitment, leadership and much more organized, professional, energetic and better-run campaigns.

Alabama has shown that a Democrat can be elected under much less favorable circumstances—those votes just need to be fiercely excavated. The question now is: Do Democrats in Dauphin County have it in them?

Lawrance Binda is editor in chief of TheBurg.

Harrisburg Mayor: City plans to proceed with composting facility plan.

December 15, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse made a final pitch for a composting facility last night in Susquehanna Township.

Harrisburg intends to move ahead with plans to build a composting facility in Susquehanna Township, even though a number of township residents still don’t want it.

With Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse in attendance, seven township residents and one state representative appeared before the township board of commissioners on Thursday night to oppose the composting site. No residents at the meeting voiced support for the facility, but the city’s administration believes that it has won enough support in the community to proceed with the project.

“There’s a handful of people from the neighborhood who oppose it, but it’s not overwhelming,” Papenfuse said. “We’ve worked hard to include incorporate public feedback, and there were far fewer people speaking out against it tonight.”

Papenfuse said that the city would apply for a facility permit with the state Department of Environmental Protection in January. If DEP grants the permit, which Papenfuse believes it will, the city will begin to convert the site to a compost facility.

City officials have campaigned to build a composting facility at 1850 Stanley Rd. since the summer. After they were met with fierce opposition from some residents in Susquehanna Township, they agreed to delay the permit application until they had more public support. Over the following months they hosted informational sessions and visits to comparable sites to teach residents about composting.

Some of the concerns raised on Thursday were over the perceived environmental and health harms of a composting facility. Sue Helm, a representative for Pennsylvania’s 104^th legislative district, cited those reasons when she said her constituents in Edgemont did not want the facility in their neighborhood.

Papenfuse reminded the crowd that composting leaves and lawn waste – which essentially involves letting the material decompose into the ground – does not carry any risks to humans, soil or water sources.

State municipal codes require Harrisburg to maintain its own composting facility for leaves and yard waste. The city decided to build the site on land in Susquehanna Township owned by the Harrisburg School District. The Stanley Road property is owned by the school district and will be leased to the city for a nominal fee. According to Papenfuse, the facility cannot be built in a flood plain, which drastically limits the potential sites in Harrisburg city limits.

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