via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
by Clarece Polke, Pittsburg Post-Gazette,
October 16, 2015,
Upper St. Clair School District board directors are making a statement amid the ongoing state budget impasse: We won’t pay our bills until you pay yours.
In a Sept. 21 voting meeting, board directors voted to withhold the employer’s portion of its payments into the Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System — PSERS— until the 2015-16 state budget is passed.
The decision came after a legal analysis was distributed by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association in late August. School Boards Association general counsel Stuart Knade opined that the state’s 500 school districts could take stopgap measures to address growing cash flow problems, including delaying payment of employer contributions to the retirement system.
“It must be observed that once the commonwealth has failed to adopt a budget by the deadline established by law, and consequently is not distributing the state and federal education funding upon which large portions of local school entity budgets are premised, we have moved into uncharted territory beyond the contemplation of most of the laws governing public school operations,” the opinion read in part.