Vote yes to fund schools

Published 12:21pm Friday, October 28, 2011
Comments

We recognize that, thanks to the state Legislature, property taxes have increased in communities throughout Otter Tail County. We also believe the Legislature has put an unfair, undue burden on school districts in underfunding them to the point where they need to conduct referenda to stay afloat.

That said, we believe it is critical that residents in the Pelican Rapids, Battle Lake,

Henning, Perham-Dent and New York Mills school districts vote yes on levy referenda

on Nov. 8.

We do agree with opponents that school districts need to eliminate waste and focus funding on reducing class sizes and providing the widest affordable curriculum.

That said, the combination of reduced funding and declining enrollment — the primary

factor in determining school funding — has already forced school district boards to cut

its fat.

We believe that, should residents vote no on these referenda, the result will mean larger class sizes and a smaller variety of course offerings. Both would hurt students.

Schools in this area have a reputation of quality. Let’s be sure we provide them the funding to continue to provide quality education.

Comments
  1. George Ruben October 28, 2011 at 6:16 pm <Link>

    How come all of our legislators changed the non-homestead tax on lake property to be almost the same as a resident with homestead credit? Just think how much money that is for each school district your talking about. Most of these taxes were put on out-of-state people who own much of our lake property which helped your school districts. The taxes also were put on people who could afford two properties. If they can afford lake property, they can afford the taxes. I can add up several million dollars just on Ottertail lake that was lost to their stupidity. Why would the people we vote for take away extra income for our schools, cities, and counties? Because they were bought out by lobbyists and some covered their own butts to lower their taxes. Why don’t people know this change? Look at your property taxes online and compare to your non-homestead neighbor. What used to be double the taxes is now only a few hundred dollars. Great job legislators!! I hope everyone votes the incumbnents out – they all are bought off and need to move on. How much did their great shut down cost us this summer? And now they are talking about a special session for a VIkings stadium – who pays for those meetings? They wouldn’t have those meetings to keep the parks open over the 4th of July – intelligent?

    Along with this I also feel that a school should be run like a business and needs to make ends meet. The older generation grew up without all these additional classes and sports you ask for. We can read, write, and add numbers without calculators and computers. I don’t understand why you just expect everyone to pay for your wishes which cost a lot of extra money that most people don’t have today. Do you know how many older people you have already taxed out of their homes because you want your children to have the BEST education. Maybe it’s time to have the teachers work 8 hours a day like the old times vs. 5-6 hours they teach now. Just think – 2-3 hours per day times 20 teachers = 40-60 hours = one less salary needed per budget. Why do we pay Superintendants over $100K per year? It’s a joke for small schools. Bottom line – get back to reality and understand we are in a tight economy, so adjust to it. Cut the budget and give the people in our county a break -especially the older retired people – whom I hope can stay retired without eating up their savings with your selfish wishes for your own children – think about someone else!!

  2. Jerome Mullins October 29, 2011 at 4:44 pm <Link>

    George, let me get this straight? Are you wailing that it isn’t right to inhibit the ability of local governments to gouge property owners from another area for double (or more) the property taxes paid by a local resident? Do you find some sense of justice or morality for charging our visitors twice as much on their properties so you can pay for local services such as schools, welfare programs, community properties and services which they might use, at most, one quarter of the year, if at all? Solely because they choose to come to their lake property and shop in the local stores, eat and entertain themselves in local restaurants, buy gas in local stations? And, those same businesses teetering on the edge of insolvency and employee layoffs without the summer business? And you are outraged that they don’t pay more for services they don’t use, but which benefit you? Can you tell me what difference there is between your position and a fulltime, lifetime welfare recipient?

    The plain facts are that those non homestead property owners provide a substantial amount of the budgets which provide YOU with government services AND then they pay for local services in their own communities. Is it a felony to be able to afford two properties? Show me where that is written in law. Perhaps in the Marxist manifesto and Socialist Code of Human “Justice” it is, but neither of those philosophies even permits anyone but the dictatorial government to own property. Have you noticed the high number of lake properties for sale, standing empty, because more families are getting fed up with locals who see them as targets to be fleeced, soaked, and giving up their lake homes so they can use their assets to pay for their own families rather than the families of the communities who prey on them with their high taxes?

    George, you are mostly right about the avaricious school district administrators and teachers. In the last 15 or so years, area school districts, with few exceptions, have seen their student populations decline anywhere from 15 percent to 40 percent. But, there has not been a commensurate decline in the number of teachers, as statewide, almost 24 percent more people are involved in education, whether teachers, aids, staff, or administrators. And the only segment of our state budgets which come close to education in increasing in costs is healthcare. Both those areas have increased at rates varying from years to year at rates from 2 to 5 times the increase in any other area of our lives. You’re right when you state that previous generations learned to read and write and do math, know science, in classrooms where there were twice or more as many students per teacher as now. And we didn’t need touchie feelie feel good about yourself and forget the rest of the world courses which weigh down our school curriculums as now. There is a lot of room for cost cutting in our schools. Enact TRUE reform in our public schools and the result will be that many schools will be awash in funds under current funding mechanisms. And a lot of teachers of Asian cultural considerations and Alternative lifestyle, Greek dietary influences on societal harmony walking the street to find real jobs.

  3. Don Johnson October 30, 2011 at 2:26 pm <Link>

    time to let tax breaks for the rich expire! why should rich people from out of state be given special treatment to buy up our land? lets show self preservation skills here!

  4. Don Johnson October 30, 2011 at 2:28 pm <Link>

    and lets start talking about what tax breaks for the rich actually are! Welfare for the already rich!

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