overtaxed. school districts collecting more money than they spend, stocking it away. some say it's necessary to pay down unexpected debt. others say it's misleading taxpayers. today we hear from both sides. mixed attention. the heroin epidemic is exploding but we're not hearing much about it from the presidential candidates. today, we discuss why the opioid crisis is getting scant

attention on the national level. and a local vineyard who says they're being bullied over this logo by an agency that's become drunk with power. >> announcer: "nbc 10 at issue" starts now. beginning, i'm jacqueline london for "nbc 10 at issue." we begin with an nbc 10 investigation that finds some school districts hoarding the taxes they collect, as one of our area's most affluent districts fights a lawsuit accusing it of misleading the public. nbc 10's mitch blacher with the details. >> reporter: liz's kids go to school in lower merion township. it's a district that's raised taxes more than 53% in the last decade. >> i know people who do want their money back. i want them to be honest, is that i want. >> reporter: in what could be a landmark legal decision, a judge says for the last ten years, the

lower merion school district deliberately overestimated debts the district would incur, that schools told taxpayers they needed more money than they actually did. as the district appeals the decision, taxpayers lobby the school board and superintendent robert copland. copland initially agreed to talk to us about our investigation that found the district has consistently overestimated how much money it needs. but he cancelled the interview after the court's recent ruling. >> we're making a best guess for the next year. >> reporter: district spokesman doug young says the over-budgeting wasn't done on purpose. >> every district has to go through an extensive budget process. >> reporter: our nbc 10 investigation finds lower merion is not alone. we looked into 12 suburban philadelphia school district budgets for the last six years. 11 consistently told taxpayers they needed more money than they did. according to our analysis, lower

merion, central bucks, and downing town area schools had the biggest differences between what they told taxpayers and what they spent. it adds up to tens of millions of tax dollars. >> we were doing it in secret. we were not telling the public what we were doing. >> reporter: former unionville chance school board member keith smith says he convinced the school board to stop the practice. now he's an expert witness in the case. he provided an analysis reviewing school districts' over-budgeting. >> they're cooking the books, telling a wrong story and misleading the public. >> reporter: this district overestimated how much money it needs by 7.6% since 2009. the district brought in an extra

$19.4 had million. >> i think we're doing things very well. it would be highly irresponsible of us to sit here and say we can't get better at it. >> reporter: he's the district superintendent. he explained the district uses the extra money to renovate schools and pay down debt. >> that's incumbent upon us to be stronger in our communication. >> excuse me. >> i would like to call the meeting to order. >> reporter: in downingtown, we asked for more than a month to schedule an interview with the superintendent. he refused. we wanted to ask him why over the past six years the district told taxpayers it needed $50 million more than it actually spent. we to show up to the district's monthly board meaning. >> we welcome mr. blacher and channel 10 news. >> reporter: where the superintendent finally agreed to and our questions. >> since you're here and you're

persistent, i'm happy to answer your questions. >> reporter: but do you tell people you need more than you actually spend? he says downingtown needs the money to build new buildings and pay down the debt. >> this is 20 years of us doing this. this isn't six years. >> it's side stepping the public. >> reporter: the state auditor general has seen the practice before. in 2015 he found the pittsburgh school district overestimating how much money it needed the day before raising taxes. he says he will take a look at our list. even budgets approved by the department of education. >> we're certainly going to make sure they're on our list for future audits. >> that was nbc 10's mitch blacher reporting. the lower merion lawsuit could have widespread implications across the state. a judge is set to hear the appeal in december. joining me now are james paul with the commonwealth foundation, a conservative think tank dedicated to lowering taxes

and reducing the size of government. also joining us is mark miller, the school director from centennial school district in bucks county, also the president-elect of the pennsylvania school board investigation. the psva works to support school board members. thank you both for being here, we appreciate your time. mark, a lot of school districts are taking heat from holding back those taxes. others are saying it's necessary because there might be unforeseen circumstances. health care costs and pensions. help us understand that. >> well, if a school district has money in reserve, they have it for three different categories. a lot of times a school district will have a project that they need a lot more money than they have available in any one year from revenue. the only revenue we have are taxes. so if a school district is -- i'll give you an example of my own school district. if we're trying to put full day kindergarten into effect, which

is something we've been trying to do for years, we would like to be able to hold back some money to be able to do that. downingtown built an s.t.e.m. academy, the first in the state, a show piece in the state. but they couldn't do that with money from any one year. so there's a committed fund balance, which is money that is held in the treasury now but committed for a purpose in the future. and that's not going to change. that money is not going to be used for another purpose. then they have assigned money, which is money that's used for a particular purpose, let's say a technology project that hasn't been defined or approved yet. and then the last is the undesignated fund balance. and that's the school district's rainy day money, that's money you should really be focusing on. >> where does the money come from? is it completely tax-based in p.a.? if there's a need for more, where does that come from? >> the state does contribute

some money to school districts. pennsylvania lags far behind a lot of other statements. in fact we're in the bottom five out of 50 states in the percentage of costs that the state provides. so that burden falls on the local taxpayer. and you have to remember that for 70 to 80% of the members of the community, they don't have children in the schools. so they don't see a benefit in their own mind for what they're paying in taxes. it's very difficult when homeowners are on a fixed income, too. >> some have told us they don't have a problem with school districts holding back that money, but it's the fact that they aren't aware of it. what do you say to that? they want to know what's going on. >> not to be crass. they have to pay better attention. it is a very transparent process. that's part of the problem, because the school district begins its budget cycle before the state finalizes its budget.

i looked at the information on the commonwealth foundation website. they talk about 2014-'15 school year, which is probably the most current data we have. so if you look at our budget process that year, we started in february of 2013 when we posted our budget. >> jackie, let's step back for a minute and look at the big picture, which is this. before state government puts its palm out to pennsylvania taxpayers and asks for more, the first thing we have to do is make sure money government already receives is being spent wisely and efficiently. this story is a great example that that isn't happening right now in pennsylvania. across our 500 school districts there are over $4.3 billion sitting in reserve accounts. >> that's not true. that is not true. >> while at the same time, at the same time, many districts are requesting higher taxes year

after year. in light of the decision in lower merion, where a judge said the school board had misled taxpayers, raised taxes while holding large reserves, what we at the commonwealth foundation did was take a look at other school districts in pennsylvania to see if similar patterns were developing, and indeed there are similar patterns of districts raising taxes year after yearar even above a state-mandated cap, while holding large amounts of funds in reserve. it should be alarming to all taxpayers. >> you were saying that's not. >> number one, $4.3 billion was the figure at the beginning of the 2014-'15 school year. we shouldn't be looking at that, it's two years old. >> we're looking at the most recently available data. >> yes, but after a budget impasse, those funds are gone. even if you look at the $4.3 billion, when you talk about the three categories i talked about, the committed fund balances, the assigned fund balances, and the

undesignated fund balances, 2014 on july 1st, when the fiscal year started, there were only $1.7 billion in undesignated fund balances. >> okay, mark, let's look at it another way. i would put it to you this way. every dollar right now that is sitting in a rainy day account, held by a school district, is one dollar that cannot be saved or spent or invested by a taxpayer. school districts often talk about the need to plain for rn y days, i understand that, prudent serves make sense. but when we talk about rainy days, it is raining right now for so many pennsylvania residents who are looking to make a car payment, pay a student loan, pay their electricity bill. if school districts are holding too much money, excessive amounts of reserves, while still demanding higher taxes, that's when questions need to be raised. >> let's look at spend wisely, which is your term. we have an auditor general who does that. he looks to make sure that we're spending our money wisely.

he's also said that some of the laws that we have in the state are not written well. the law for building a budget is not written well. the law for charter schools, he says, are the worst in the nation. so i look at 17 charter schools that have been approved by the state. they've got $1.2 billion over the last three years. not one of them, not one of them has scored a passing grade in the school performance profile. is that spending money wisely? we're forced to do that. >> you'll notice that mark is changing the subject, he's changing the topic to charter schools when the issue -- >> i'm talking about spending wisely. >> the same auditor general has told "the patriot news" recently that fund balances above 20% of total spending is a level that is questionable or potentially excessive. and there are dozens of school districts right now in pennsylvania that have reserves that high while also requesting

tax increases. >> he said should be questioned, i hope he does. i invite him to do that. >> we know a judge is set to hear the appeal in september. we'll have the latest on nbc 10. we appreciate you both for coming and talking to us. mark miller and james paul. now to this. it's become the silent crisis in this election. next we'll discuss why the candidates are mum when it comes to the explosion of addiction in this country.

this election season, no issue is off limits, from border security, improving education, and everything in between. voters have practically heard it all. but another important issue which according to the national institutes of health affects one in four families has received only mixed attention. we're talking about addiction and the epidemic that has ripped parts of our country and region. joining me is martha cohen of ashley addiction treatment, a

nonprofit facility specializing in substance abuse disorders. many of ashley's patients come from the philadelphia region. thank you, martha, we appreciate your time. >> thank you for inviting me. >> what is the role for our lawmakers in the addiction crisis? >> there are actually multiple roles. i think one of the main roles at this point is to come to grips with the scope and the size of the problem. there are 22.5 million people in this country in need of addiction treatment. if you took those 22.5 million people and made them a country, it would be the fifth largest country in the world. so that gives you an idea of the scope of the problem. and to your point, there's very little discussion about that on a federal or a national level. >> it seems that most of the attention has come from local politicians, not national candidates. why do you think that is? >> because i think that local politicians are the boots on the ground. they see it in their own communities.

they hear from their constituents that want help, that want help for others. so they're in the middle. they're in the mix. >> and in wednesday's presidential debate we did not hear the presidential candidates discussing it. do you watch each of the debates hoping to hear it and then walk away disappointed that it hasn't been addressed? >> absolutely. absolutely. it is the number one public health crisis in this country. and the fact that we're not talking about it on a national level is just mind-boggling. >> at the heart of the fight, you say, is funding. >> absolutely. absolutely. so one of the problems is that for a very long time in this country, we've treated substance abuse disorders and addiction as though they are episodes. so you broke your arm, you get a cast, your arm heals, and you're done. we treat addiction that way. the fact is that addiction is a chronic, long term disease. and the word "chronic" is

important. so lifelong treatment is necessary. and the longer you can keep a person engaged in treatment, the better the outcome. so for example, with diabetes, you know, that's a lifelong disease, just like addiction. diabetes is treated for the life of the patient. addiction is not. it's treated by episode. we'll send you here for a few days or send you to this program or we'll send you to that program and you'll be fixed. you don't fix addiction. you manage addiction. it's a chronic disease. >> it's not a band-aid that you can just put on. >> no, it is not. >> there are laws on the books like the mental health parity act of 2008 that are meant to make treatment more accessible. are these laws being enforced? >> they are not, and thank you for bringing that to everyone's attention. it's probably one of the biggest problems that we see. again, we talked about it being a chronic disease. so when you go for treatment for diabetes or you go for treatment

for cancer, generally speaking there's not a question about whether or not your health insurance company is going to cover that. the parity act was designed to make the treatment of addiction exactly the same. because there's no enforcement of the law, it's not incumbent upon the insurance company to then pay for treatment, so they choose not to. >> the conversation, i know, will be ongoing, and hopefully will be elevated on a political and federal level. we thank you for being here, martha meehan-cohen. there will be an event at the ashley treatment center, go to ashleytreatment.org. there will be a reception and dinner. nbc 10's rosemary connors will be the mc of that event.

still to come, a local vineyard says it's being bullied into changing its logo. is it copyright infringement or a big bureaucracy drunk with power? that's next. that would be it. i prayed that call would never come. [ radio chatter ] self control may be all that keeps these missiles from firing. [ sirens blearing ] i would bomb the [ beep] out of them. i want to be unpredictable. i love war. the thought of donald trump with nuclear weapons scares me to death. it should scare everyone. i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message.

a new jersey vineyard has filed a lawsuit against the new jersey turnpike authority over its logo. the turnpike authority says its garden state parkway logo is protected by federal trademark and the vineyard logo is just too similar. but the vineyard believes otherwise, claiming it is being bullied by the turnpike authority and calling it a case of david versus goliath. with me is the owner of old york sellers winery in ringos, new jersey. >> thank you for having me. >> the logos do look very similar. why is this not a copyright infringement issue? >> no one is really confused by this. we do have a similarity in

color, we both use green and yellow, those are typical turnpike colors, that's part of the complaint that the state has. they do have a similarity in color but they are different, there's no confusion. it really doesn't affect their brand. >> when you look at the two side by side, do you see what the turnpike authority is saying, that it's entirely too similar? >> there is a picture of the state on there and there's colors, green and yellow. but we don't use any of the same words. it's really in a different configuration. yes, there is some similarity, because we're all based in new jersey. as far as any confusion with any customer or anyone driving on the parkway, there really is none and they have no case at this point. >> we asked the new jersey turnpike to join us on the show. they sent an e-mail response.

in that e-mail response new jersey turnpike authority's spokesman says, "given the number of people who die every year as a result of drunk drivers, the turnpike authority chooses not to participate in the promotion of alcoholic products. the idea that this is a dispute about their use of the colors green and yellow is silly." your reaction? >> i don't understand it. they are not promoting alcohol. we don't promote drinking and driving. if you go down to the rest areas on the parkway, they sell goods which could be used to promote alcohol consumption. they sell travel wine bugs, beer mints that are designed to cover up beer breath, they sell wine cozies. for them to be hypocritical and say they would be promoting drinking and driving, that's just wrong. i don't understand where they're coming from. >> they say they were

negotiating toward an amicable solution but you stopped negotiating and decided to sue. >> to be honest, they didn't start negotiating until after we sued. their negotiation is, change your logo and we'll leave you alone. that's really what they came back with. the turnpike authority are basically trying to protect their own marketing of mugs and other trinkets. that's where this is really coming from. it has nothing to do with their notion of promoting alcohol. maybe they should spend more time fixing the roads instead of promoting mugs on the internet. >> we know it's still under discussion. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you very much for having me. we'll be right back. ♪

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is symbol you know you're watching television that is educational and informational the more you know. on nbc. lauren: hi, i'm lauren thompson, and this is heart of a champion." today, learn how one of the elite pit crews in nascar keeps its team in a position to win from start to finish. wes: building that chemistry and that trust between one another, knowing where guys are going to be when the right call is made is huge. lauren: and find out why panthers tight end greg olsen is making an even greater impact off the field. greg: we said, how amazing would it be if we could provide that level of in-home care to every family who's born with a congenital heart defect?' lauren: then, the fascinating story of lpga legend se ri pak and how she paved the way for a new generation of golfers. inbee: golf became so popular because of her.