Last night the Annual Elector's Meeting took a turn for the bizarre. The electors, or a group disguised as electors in some early Halloween affair, voted to raise the tax levy HIGHER than that proposed by the school board!
Yep...that's right...the crowd actually told the school board to tax them MORE than proposed. God bless democracy!
The school board was proposing a $47,083,483 tax levy, for a 3.48% increase.
Instead, the "electors" voted overwhelmingly to raise the levy to $47,354,483, a 4.07% increase over last year.
There appeared to be between 150 and 200 people in the room and only SEVEN...count 'em...7...voted to support a lower levy. Interestingly enough the crowd appeared to be largely teachers or other school staff along with their administrators. Only a handful of "gray hairs" could be seen in the crowd. Hmmmm...the very people struggling the most not in attendance.
No sour grapes here....although the meeting had a curious "staged" feel to it. A number of people felt that the electors meeting actually became an unpublicized referendum. We do wonder, though, why there were slides in the presentation describing "budget initiatives" that the board had repeatedly rejected. If these "initiatives" were not part of the budget, what business did they have being part of the presentation...except maybe to cue or incite the crowd?
Still...at the end of the day...politics are politics, and rules are rules. The majority of those in attendance get to make the call, and clearly those wanting to spend heavily came out in force. Those that opted not to come out can only be angry with themselves.
Get ready for a mill rate approaching $13.00.
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