Administration Works to Resolve Property Tax "Bounce-back"...NOT!

Remember that ultimately annoying, but maniacally gleeful cry of "NOT!" shouted out by characters Wayne Campbell or Garth Algar (of SNL's "Wayne's World" fame) immediately following any insincere comment? That's what immediately comes to mind as we read through the district's proposals for "budget reductions".

Oh yes...the proposed "budget cuts" have been released, and will be up for discussion at next Monday's (11-23-09) school board meeting.

You'll recall that ultimate goal was to respond to the school board directive to "find" at least $1.1M in budget cuts for this year (2009-10) in order to limit the amount of fund balance required to balance the budget to about $800K.

"Logic would dictate...", as Spock so frequently began his monologues, that any such "cuts" would have been geared towards those permanent in nature. Permanent cuts are necessary to avoid the "bounce-back" to property taxes next year. Of course, since when does the district administration proceed according to some logical path?

The annual operating budget for 2009-10 is $68,800,000.
The amount of permanent cuts proposed: $21,000.

That's right. We didn't forget any zeros. These proposed "permanent" measures trim this year's spending by 0.023% and future spending by no more than 0.03%. And actually, that percentage will drop lower due to the District's propensity for increasing it's budget at a rate of 5-6% annually.

Guess the school board needed to be more clear in their directive.
Or does administration really see what transpired at October 12's annual meeting as an isolated "glitch", and the community will gladly dig deep into their pockets next year, and all future years, to shell out phenomenal property tax increases?

Of course, if we all received compensation approaching $150,000 per year, we might feel that way, too. NOT!!!!