Taxpayer watchdog joins school board

The Owen J. Roberts School District in Chester County has a new member.

His name is Eugene Endress, founder and president of the OJR Taxpayers Alliance, a group that has been leading the efforts to curb spending and eliminate school property taxes.

He's in enemy territory now. While the Gov. Ed Rendell and the Pennsylvania Legislature have failed repeatedly to deal with the state's onerous property tax system, local school boards continue to raise taxes every year.

It's going to be up to people like Endress to put a stop to runaway spending by school boards.

Endress, a vocal critic of wasteful spending by the OJR school board, is also active in the Pennsylvania Taxpayers Cyber Coalition, which consists of two dozen citizen taxpayer groups fighting to end school property taxes.

Endress helped organize two bus loads of Chester County residents for an anti-tax rally in Harrisburg earlier this year.

I'm going to be keeping a close watch on Endress, who could form a new majority on the school board to look out for taxpayers. Endress told me he expects to be a thorn in the side of the administration if it doesn't control spending and stop raising property taxes.

He got off on the right foot after he was sworn into office today. Offered a laptop computer that the rest of the board members were issued courtesy of the district taxpayers, Endress said "no thanks."

Read the full story in today's edition of The Mercury.