It's an affront to Freeport School District taxpayers that their teachers are getting another free ride in terms of contributing toward health insurance.

The new five-year contract ratified by the school board Wednesday evening by a 7-2 vote includes an increase in health insurance co-pays but does not otherwise require any teacher contribution toward the cost of their coverage.

What that means is that taxpayers who must contribute toward the cost of their own coverage at their workplaces are again being required to give a free ride to the teachers.

At the same time, district taxpayers in Buffalo Township will be paying a one-mill tax increase — to 119 mills from 118 — in the 2010-11 fiscal year while the district's Armstrong County taxpayers in Freeport Borough and South Buffalo Township will pay two additional mills. The new tax rate is 53 mills.

The district merits praise for trying to keep spending in line by having adopted a 2010-11 budget of $24.2 million that represents a 1.4 percent decrease over 2009-10. But that doesn't excuse the district from criticism for not trying to exact more savings by being firm over the issue of having the district's 141 teachers contribute toward their health care premiums.

To their credit, two board members — Meredith Christy and Susan Lowers — expressed the right attitude in revealing the reason for their “no” votes — that the new contract's pay increases are too high and that the teachers again will not be helping the district pay health insurance costs.

Considering that the contract calls for an overall 4.6 percent pay increase during the term of the contract, teachers surely could have afforded to ease the taxpayers' health coverage financial burden.

Taxpayers have grounds for being angry.

Butler Downtown and the Butler County Historical Society merit praise for hosting the second summer of tours of downtown Butler this year.Included are both walking and trolley tours.Ticket and tour information is available from Butler Downtown by calling 724-256-5769 or by way of the Internet at www.ButlerDowntown.org. All proceeds benefit Butler Downtown and the historical society.Butler Downtown's July newsletter quotes previous tour participants who said that the tours “brought new meaning to things we have ‘driven by' for years.”Remaining walking tours this year are scheduled for July 8 and Sept. 12. A trolley tour is scheduled for Aug. 8.The tours are fun and educational experiences at a reasonable cost.

Democracy Rising PA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working for integrity, value, transparency and citizen confidence in government.But the state General Assembly warrants something other than confidence — and trust — based on new revelations by the good government group.According to Democracy Rising, which closely tracks the business of the Legislature, during the marathon 2009-10 budget process, which missed its constitutionally mandated budget deadline of June 30 by nearly half a year, the General Assembly over-budgeted for itself, enabling it to recoup $67 million of the $87 million it spent during the long budget impasse.“In other words, rather than spending down their surplus, they added to it,” Democracy Rising said.Democracy Rising noted that, each year, after the governor presents a proposed budget, lawmakers hold public hearings at which cabinet officers and others must defend their budget requests, line item by line item.The House and Senate don’t impose that requirement on themselves, although they should face the public regarding their planned allocations.For 2010-11, the House and Senate ensured that their individual 2010-11 budgets would not suffer any meaningful consequences — the House will take a cut of just $1.04 million (out of a budget of about $184 million), and the Senate, $119,000 (out of a budget of about $92 million).In grabbing so much money that they don’t really need, they’ve forced cuts on other worthy recipients of state funds, such as public libraries, whose state money will be cut by 9.1 percent during this new fiscal year.Neither the House nor Senate reveals any shame over the double standard under which they operate. They should.