Political News and Commentary with the Right Perspective. NAVIGATION
  • Front Page
  • News
  • Multimedia
  • Tags
  • RSS Feed


  • Advertise on RightMichigan.com


    NEWS TIPS!

    Get the RightMighigan.com toolbar!


    RightMichigan.com

    Buzz

    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    Vote no on school bond proposal


    By JGillman, Section News
    Posted on Wed Apr 28, 2010 at 03:39:31 PM EST
    Tags: Schools, Bonds, Michigan, Inland lakes, Special Elections, Unions (all tags)

    GrannyNanny felt this needed a little more exposure than the Straitsland Resorter editorial page.  Though not the traditional format, It is reproduced in its entirety as it appeared.  (Somewhat like a reposting) Indeed, it has meaning to many who are continually besieged with requests for additional bond approvals.

    by L. Scott Swanson, Editor
    Straitsland Resorter

    It's almost as if schools follow a script when trying to get a tax increase passed.

    First, they try to persuade people there's some kind of crisis, an urgent crisis.

    Next the board puts a tax proposal on the ballot.

    Any board members expressing reservations are told that putting the proposal on the ballot is just "letting the people decide."

    Supporters push the millage using standard arguments. It's for the kids. Or they minimize the increase. Rather than calling it a $2 million tax, they equate it to cups of coffee, cans of pop, doughnuts whatever - a pittance. If they can find any possible way to characterize the tax proposal as a "renewal" or an "extension," anything, but an "increase" they do that.

    Then there's a spring election with nothing but school issues on the ballot. This normally means a small voter turnout. With a small turnout, a few hundred people can pass a tax increase that thousands will pay.

    Before voting on May 4, Inland Lakes voters should analyze that process and think about whether they really want things to play out that way.

    Continued below the fold.

    Is there some kind of urgent crisis? No. Granted there are repairs that need to be made, but there are always repairs that need to be made to large facilities. Consider the timing of the tax proposal. The reason the school has a tax increase proposal on this year's ballot isn't because buildings are going to fall tomorrow. It's because a construction bond passed in 1989 is being paid off and school people think that makes this an opportune time to talk people into passing a new maintenance bond.

    Even if taxpayers were to accept that there's a crisis, it's not a crisis of the taxpayers' making. The school has a maintenance problem because funds that should have gone to maintenance instead went to salaries and benefits. That was the result of close-door negotiations between the school board and labor unions.

    On May 4 taxpayers need to send a clear message to the school board and labor unions. You can go behind closed doors and negotiate, but if the result of those negotiations is a funding problem, the problem will be yours, not ours.

    The "It's for the kids" argument is always trotted out, to make you feel that if you don't support the school tax increase you're somehow a selfish, evil person who doesn't like kids. I like kids. Unfortunately, as attested to by declining enrollment, these days there aren't as many around. Due to economic problems, high taxes among them, many kids are from families who had to move out of the area. It's important to keep taxes from escalating to the point where parents have a hard time making ends meet. That way parents can stay in the area and provide good homes - for the kids.

    The minimization argument (cup of coffee, can of pop, whatever) ignores the cumulative effect of one tax increase piled on top of another. Rather than a cup of coffee, why not cite something for which there is no charge - a breath of air. Taxpayers could give up one breath per day for the May 4 tax proposal and be all right. But by the time they give up some more breaths for school operations and still more for local, state and federal taxes for this, that and the other thing taxpayers end up blue in the face.

    An even simpler response to the minimization argument is that if what the taxing entity is asking for is such a small thing, such a pittance, why can't they make adjustments and do without it? Taxpayers have already made adjustments and are doing without things.

    The "extension" versus "increase" argument has been debated at length. When one bond ends and taxpayers owe zero and a new bond begins, changing taxpayers from owing zero to owing $2 million, that's an increase. But say you accept that paying .18 of a mill this year for an old bond and paying .18 of a mill next year for a new bond is an "extension." If you read a little more about the new bond, you'll find that after the first year it's projected to go up to between .24 and .74 mills in years two through ten. So what would you call that, "extending it to a higher amount?"

    The "let the people decide" argument and the May election are related in that the former doesn't hold water due to the latter. If the school was really interested in being guided by the will of the people, they would put the issue on the November ballot, which has a larger voter turnout. In a typical May school election the Inland Lakes school district will have between 500 and 600 voters turn out. In a November election, Tuscarora Township alone will have approximately three times that number. If the board truly wanted to know the will of the people, rather than having an election where 250 core supporters could be enough to get something passed, they would have the election in November.

    Beyond democratic process questions, the May election also has a financial cost. Since the school insists on having their own private election in May, rather than being part of the November election, Inland Lakes taxpayers pay an additional $5,000 to $6,000 per year in election costs. To pay that expense year after year just so every 10 years or so the school has a better chance of raising taxes should outrage taxpayers.

    While the bond is for $1.5 million, interest on the bond will add $540,000. By the time all is said and done, taxpayers will pay $2 million. Nearly $60,000 per year will be going for interest and election costs, not building repairs.

    On some matters the present board and superintendent have been courageous and innovative, but with this bond proposal, they're taking an approach that is conventional and convenient for them and wrong and expensive for taxpayers.

    If people are inclined to give the school more money for remodeling and renovations, the way to do that would be through a pay-as-you-go sinking fund. That would save the $60,000 per year in election and interest costs.

    Even the sinking fund shouldn't be considered until the school gets their salary and benefit costs under control. Their current projected budget for 2010/11 calls for average compensation increases of approximately $5,000 per school employee between this year and next. That's too much.
    What needs to happen is for the school to first demonstrate to taxpayers that they are capable of reining in salary and benefit costs. If they can do that, then a November election proposal to establish a sinking fund might make sense.

    The May 4 bond proposal does not make sense. Inland Lakes voters who truly care about financially responsible government and the adverse effect that unnecessary tax increases have on families and businesses need to make time in their day on Tuesday, May 4 and go down to the Tuscarora Township Hall and vote no on the Inland Lakes school bond proposal. Things will never get better unless voters make the effort to vote and demand that they get better.

    < Carrying the Water and the Big Tent | Exclusive Interview with Dan Benishek >


    Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit


    Display: Sort:
    Thanks (none / 0) (#1)
    by grannynanny on Wed Apr 28, 2010 at 04:19:15 PM EST
    Thanks JGill

    Perhaps by posting this others can see our frustration with being tagged as a naysayer when it comes to the constant drone of "we need more money" for our schools.  

    We are tapped out and it is time for schools to start cutting back.  Michigan has lost lots of families and the kids that attend our schools.  But like our state government, local schools have refused to cut back.

    You think that is bad? (none / 0) (#2)
    by KG One on Wed Apr 28, 2010 at 06:20:18 PM EST
    How would you like to be the school board pushing for a $23-million bond for "internal improvements".

    Then realize that their general fund budget numbers were "slightly" off. How $11-million went "missing" is an interesting story by itself, but I'll save that one for later.

    And then to add insult to injury, close several of the very same schools that they were floating a bond for not even one year earlier?

    And where will the bond money programmed for those now closed schools go?

    Stay tuned...

    I think you guys... (none / 0) (#3)
    by maidintheus on Thu Apr 29, 2010 at 09:17:54 AM EST
    are onto 'them'.

    Display: Sort:

    Login

    Make a new account

    Username:
    Password:
    Tweet along with RightMichigan by
    following us on Twitter HERE!

    Related Links

    + Also by JGillman
    create account | faq | search