Curmudgeon's Corner

Kinda weird that there's been more consternation on here regarding the $56 cost of a new school building that the District needs, yet its been mostly silent on the issue of overpaying MATC more than four times that amount.

As I have said before, I find it hilarious that Tom Kepimpski is consistently riled up about this issue, and "too much taxes" when the records clearly show that the Village tax increase has been 50% greater than the MATC tax increase over the past 5 years.  And, as I have also said before, the local school tax has DROPPED 12 to 15% in that same time.

Take heed of the Proverbs, Kepimpski:  "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind, and the foolish shall be a servant to the wise of heart."

I agree with you, CGR, it does seem completely out of place to be so dramatic about adding the cost of a school (and yes, I know the school board themselves has not said taxes will go up, in fact they're saying just the opposite, that this investment garners some offsetting rewards), but even if it's an increase of $56 (or $100, if you happen to live in a $380,000 house) a year,  the Village is robbing us of triple that amount with their annual debt payments WHICH WE NEVER APPROVED and MATC is nipping for, as you say, nearly 4 times what the school would cost.  Who does an industrial park benefit 30 years from now if it ever gets paid off?  What about a village hall that was denied by the votes, or now an eight million dollar hallway to connect the copshop to the old library, or the millions sunk into street lights along the Main Street that only bar patrons frequent?  No different, to me, than MATC whose mission it is to provide some amount of education for kids who should have gotten it at MPS.

This is just messed up.

Late last fall, the school district said that it would not benefit us to file until July to August because of the Schools budget year. I didn't understand why as that would have allowed it to be done by the budget year of 2008-2009, which is being prepared now. Maybe the State College Technical Board only meets once a year and that was the problem.

The Village School District, Village Board and Village residents should not be fooled by the recent "gifts" of laptop computers to the library. They did nothing for Germantown until I asked then Administrator Paul Brandenburg to call them and find out what we get for our tax dollars because we may try to move our tax dollars elsewhere. They immediately came up with the donation of 6 laptop computers for our new library. This was in 2003. Since then we have received nothing. Now when Village Trustee Al Vanderheiden made the motion to look at withdrawing from MATC, all of a sudden they hurry and appoint the School Sup. to the MATC board and now sending,five years later, more laptop computers. Those things are nothing compared to what we do for them.