It's even later than it was when I typed up my notes, so I might just be even crankier... In my Budget Discussion Post from April, I predicted they would keep the tax rate just below 10%. Well, get ready for 9.72%!
First of all, the board was presented several scenarios/options labeled B thru E. I didn't see the handout on the district website tonight, but if anybody wishes, they can email me (bradmoul_at_hotmail_dot_com) and I'd be happy to send it along. Basically, it was preordained, but I will give Tom Maher points for trying. I believe that Mr. Bradley was also trying to be fiscally responsible, but there were so many votes, options, motions, etc. that it sometimes became confusing to see where (and more importantly why) people stood.
Option B, had the most "cuts" and lowest tax increase. Because of the way it was set up by the Admin, it was doomed to fail. In a nutshell, Option B taxed 1.00 mill above the index (7.86%), cut all-day KG, cut specialists, delayed adding an additional 8th grade team of teachers, etc. etc. The one item that was not in ANY of the proposed options was an activity fee. I guess there was enough opposition to that at the last meeting, that Dr. Lesky dropped it. Option B showed a general fund surplus of $1.2M for 08-09 and "balanced" budgets (assuming 4.2% tax increases every year after that) through 2011-12. In 2012-13 we would be facing an additional $2.02M shortfall.
Mr. Maher stated that while he preferred to tax no greater than 7.0%, he would reluctantly vote for Option B, IF he could get some discussion on the board's willingness to keep future tax increases at ONLY 4.2%. It should be pointed out that NASD expects to the Act 1 index to be 4.2% in subsequent years, but Mr. Maher has done some preliminary math and he thinks it could actually be closer to 5% (or higher). He wanted judge the "morality" of the board members in their willingness to "pledge" to keep future taxes at 4.2% even if we were legally allowed to raise them higher.....
You could have heard a pin drop. Dead. Silence. Nothing.
After a somewhat ackward moment, Mr. Maher (realizing that noboby really would want to agree to that) tried to rescind his motion and put forth a plan "A/B" that would tax at a millage rate equivalent to 7.0%. His motion died without a second.
They finally voted on B. Only Maher and Bradley voted YES. Butz, Hensley, Heller, McDonald, Treon and Audenreid voted NO.
Plan C was then presented for an up/down vote. Plan C would tax at 1.5 mills above the index for a tax increase of 9.10% Here is where it got interesting, if not a bit melodramatic. Ms. McDonald made the motion, Heller seconded but he was "afraid it didn't go far enough". But Ms. McDonald clearly did not want C to pass... She stated she "didn't want to short change us" because she thought "things would be higher (in the future) and we'll be screwed". She ultimately said with her head bowed, "we should just go to (option) D and pray".
This started quite a discussion. Mr. Maher said we should have thought of that when we approved the pool. He reiterated his stance that we should have put it up for referendum and let the voters decide. Mr. Heller stated that and I quote "everyone in the district deserved the pool, but we can't afford it". Too late for that.... Mr. Butz reminded everyone that this decision had been made and was done (water under the bridge so to speak).
At one point, Mr. Hensley tried to broker a deal. He wanted to amend Option C with one additional cut (the additional 8th grade team at the MS). Eventually, this was motion was rescinded and Option C allowed to be voted on.
Voting NO (presumably it was too high): Maher
Voting NO (ostensibly it wasn't high enough): Audenreid, McDonald, Heller, Butz
Voting YES: Bradley, Treon, Hensley
That brought us to Option D which taxes us at 1.75 mills above the index for a tax increase of 9.72%. A great deal of the cuts that were presented in options B and C are back in for D. Little discussion here (at this point it was all but decided). Ultimate vote went as follows:
Voting NO: Maher, Bradley, Hensley
Voting YES: McDonald, Audenreid, Heller, Treon, Butz
After this, Mr. Maher made an interesting motion on the approval of the Athletic Budget and Budget Transfer. It appears that NASD was supposed to realize a $25K deduction when they replaced Mr. Holland athletic director, yet instead of saving money the budget actually grew for various reasons, one being the addition of Lacrosse as a varsity sport. So the actual increase in the athletic budget this year is over 7%. Mr. Maher tried to get the board to approve the transfer from the General Fund to the Athletic Fund MINUS $25K that we should have realized to no avail. It was voted down 7-2 with only Maher and Hensley voting YES.
That's it. So what do you think about paying an additional 10% (oops! actually 9.72%) while you're paying more for gas, groceries, energy and just about everything else?
3 comments:
Brad, God bless you for your infinite patience! I have attended more board meetings than I care to count and have felt the same frustration that is so apparent in your posts. I finally gave up going because I realized I was losing out on time with my family that gives me much more joy than these torturous events.
Nothing is more frustrating than approaching this board with an educational question/comment on something that affects kids and you barely get an answer. Usually it's "We'll look into that." or "We weren't aware of that and we'll get back to you." Problem is they either decide it isn't important enough to discuss or look into, or they come up with some unbelievable explanation for why they are doing it.
You never get to be part of the discussion and hear how things get figured out. This is why the board and admin have the reputation of just doing what they want to do.
For those fellow community members who have been part of the endless committees that this district constructs, you know exactly what I am talking about. They make the committee and you think you are part of a process, but when all is said and done, the committee makes a recommendation and when it comes time for action, "Voila, something else happens!" (i.e. the new 7-8 building instead of building a 4-6 school)
This district can suck the life out of you if you try and care and make a difference. So to Brad and all the other people out there trying to make a difference I wish you all the best. It's going to take our entire community to stand up for what is important and force this board to do what is right and unfortunately, I don't think half the community is even aware of most of what is going on.
And just one budget comment although I don't think this was in the motion that passed, I'm curious as to why admin would feel it necessary to add another 8th grade team (there are currently 3) when the largest 8th grade class leaves in June and the enrollment numbers for any future 8th grades currently trend down. Make sense to you? Oh yeah that's right...we don't do anything that makes sense.
wow, we're screwwwwwwwed
stock up the food bank, they are going to be busy.
Soon it will be cheaper to move to NJ!
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