Wednesday's night's Budget Hearing and Special Elector's meeting made three things perfectly clear.1. The people in this community are largely hurting from the recession.
2. A 7.8% tax increase is unacceptable.
3. They feel the school board is either oblivious or (a)pathetic.
And that folks, is recipe for a tea party.
And we've already heard rumblings to that effect.
The date: October 11, 2010
The venue: The Annual Elector's meeting at the new high school.
Last year the school board moaned and groaned and even insulted the electors after the proposed levy was reduced by $2M. When the smoke cleared, however, instead of having to "borrow $800,000 from "savings" (Fund Balance) to balance the books, they actually deposited $400-$500,000 into savings. That, folks, means we were UNDER budget by $1.3 MILLION dollars. How can we be that far off of budget unexpectedly? And they can TRY to convince us that staff just didn't spend to their (reduced) budget limits...but that's playing us for fools.
The plain and simple realities are that there was more revenue available than they let on, and there subsequently a lot of fluff remained in a "tight" budget. The district expects to be patted on the back for doi\ng a good job but they don't see that it's this manipulation of money that has enraged the taxpayers. It worked when we were all asleep at the switch. But that was then...THIS is now.
The question we're asking is: How come we didn't hear a peep about this until Monday July 26th? Even members of the Finance Committee first heard it that night. Did it just magically appear? Or was it another one of those secret secrets that they didn't want the public to know? We certainly see how damaging the info is to the district's case.
The school board may be thinking that if the electors cut the levy again, they can just override them, as threatened last year. Newsflash, school board. You may have statutory authority to override a tax levy voted by the electors "if it is insufficient to operate the schools". But good luck with that after the levy was reduced by $2M last fall and YOU STILL HAD A $1.3M SURPLUS.
The school board still has time--but not much--to make a case that they ARE listening and to actually tighten the budget belt a few notches. The ball is squarely in their court. Take action now, or the electors will do so on October 11.
Dear school board,
The community is taking orders...how do you take your tea?
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