BURKEonBOARD

(Sept. 24, 2008) – Monday night this week, the Farmington School Board did as predicted and voted to sell $12.1 million in bonds to finance future health insurance premiums for district retirees going out 40 years. This will mean a property tax increase for all property owners in the school district. Higher taxes for the district that already pays the highest school taxes in Dakota county.

The vote was 4-1 with Ann Manthey the lone dissenter and board member John Kampf absent because of illness.

Board members voting for the bond sale and tax increase said their vote “left the door open” for them to consider new information in the next three months. They were quick to point out that the Monday night vote was not the last word on the matter and that things could change before the end of the year when the tax levy is set in stone.

Wanna bet?

Monday night was the deadline for setting the preliminary tax levy that has to be reported to the county this week. The county will then print those preliminary tax statements they mail out to all us property tax payers. By law, once that preliminary levy is set, the school district, or any other local government for that matter, cannot raise the levy, but they can reduce it.

Tax statements in hand, we all get a chance to have our say on December 2 at the district’s Truth in Taxation hearing that’s required by state law. After that, the board could possibly kill the bond sale and lower the tax levy. In Las Vegas, they call that a long shot.

For now, the board members reasoned, they would just go ahead and vote for the highest bond sale and tax increase possible to “leave the door open” for all possibilities. To a person, they all said they were open to reducing the bond amount and the tax increase in December if the facts warranted it.

Well, I’m here to tell you, the facts won’t change before the end of the year and they won’t reduce the size of the bond sale or the tax levy. If you think they will, I’ve got a bridge I’d like you to take a look at.

The only thing that could possibly change any board minds is a public outcry against still higher school taxes and a deluge of voter pressure not to sell the bonds and raise the levy.

The only board member remotely susceptible to that pressure is Julie McKnight. She’s the lone incumbent running for reelection this fall. If she could be persuaded not to support the bond sale, then she might even try to convince two other board members to side with her as a showing of her prowess as board chair. Then she could make the case that 1) she actually is a leader on the board, and 2) that she has the guts to stand up to superintendent Brad Meeks who desperately wants the bond sale to preserve general fund money for things he’d rather spend on.

Heck, if McKnight actually bucked Meeks, I might even vote for her.

Just kidding. I don’t think I’ll be walking through that open door.