Curmudgeon's Corner

Something does not sound right. $22.5 million equals $74.00 per year & $30.00 per year for $500,000.00. Either I'm missing something or I went to the wrong school when I was a kid. What's up????

NUMO,

I had presumed the difference to be that of term of the loan repayment plus interest costs (10 years, 15 years 20 years?) versus the straight tax cost of the $500,000,  but I could easily be wrong.

Al - I haven't seen the language on the referendum. Is the $500,000 request to occur every year forever? or does it have a time limit?

Taxed To The Max,

I am not sure of the wording; I'm not even sure that it has been formally developed yet, but perhaps we'll get clarification from one of the board members who was present last evening.

I must say that I hope this is not going to be an open-ended proposition although I fear I might.

Al - I happened to see this comment on Bootsandsabers:

...if there are enough kids to justify a new elementary school, then why do they need to exceed the revenue caps to operate it?  If the school is going to be full of kids, wouldn’t the $9,500 or so that follows each kid be enough to run the school?  

Hopefully, Germantown voters are smart enough to reject these referenda… and then vote the entire school board out of office.  

I think it raises a good question. Why DO they need the extra money?

As we have seen that some of the board members frequent this blog I hope that they address Taxedtothemax's statement/question.

This clearly shows me that the Board failed to do their homework for the April referendum.  How would they have paid for the operating costs of the new school if that had passed?  Cutting existing programs would have been the only option, leaving us with more square footage but lower overall quality of education.  This raises some serious competency questions in my mind.  I think the two referendum questions should be combined into one -- what if the voters vote to build a new school but not to fund its operation?  

Eliminating full day kindergarten is clearly a bullying tactic if no addtional sections of other grades are added in 2009-2010.  That is certainly unethical, although I suppose not technically illegal.  "If you don't vote how we want, we'll just take the ball and go home".    

I just received this information via email and I encourage everyone who has ever left a question in this "blog" to -

"the School Board meeting that happened last night, it is being broadcast on Cable Local Access Channel 96 at 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM tonight.  Towards the latter part of the meeting School Board President Dr. Michael Erdmann spoke to address concerns and misconceptions of building a new school.  Very informative!"

Once again, the more information we all have the better informed we are to make a better decision on the ballot for November!

TAX INCREASE NEEDED

When people are considering this tax or village tax impact issues, I suggest that you look at your individual tax bill over the past 5+ years.  I did.  My tax is actually less than it was in 2002.  Surely residential and business developments over the recent past have added to the tax base, thus lowering your tax bill.  However, if the School or Village was able to predict the future, both entities should have kept a consistent or steady increases (soft economy outcome).  A small impact over time is far easier to swallow tha a big one.  Your bill indicates the percent increase or decrease for each entity.  In a community that still has development opportunities it is great to see our taxes go down, but when the econony is soft and the extra funds cease/decrease that offset tax increase, the tax base suffers.  Surely the majority of our community makes more money than they did 5+ years ago.  Since we all pay more for all the other things in life go up in price, is it unreasonable to assume School or Village tax should should go down and remain?  If Germantown is to continue to be a great place to live, then taxes surely are a necessity.

As a side note, my kids went to GHS and I thought it was ridiculous that there was no pool or auditorium.  If you compare us to other school districts, don't others have to pass referendums to improve the schools or does money magically appear?  Isn't one of the top few questions a family asks before relocating is how are the schools?

Without tax money wouldn't our schools and Village public services deteriorate?  I certainly do not want that, that can have a negative affect on my biggest investment....my house!

A last comment, any tax increase must make sense and be affordable (in thin with cost of living increases).

Good grief! We finally make some progress on keeping taxes in check and this guy wants to piss it all away on some school building we don't need, and some "technology" advances to try and get more people to vote for the increase.

I may be wrong but I think the commenter above is trying to say that by NOT increasing any taxes over the last five years, we now find ourselves between a rock and a hard place.  I don't think we can call that "progress" but perhaps a little shortsighted.  I would question why we were NOT saving for a rainy day since that rainy day seems to have come (the economy for instance).  For example, if we do not put money in our own savings account and unexpected repairs come up on our house/car - where do we get the money from?  Any company that operates near the "line" without any profit, will undoubtedly topple.  Have we been doing that in our village without preparing for future increases?  Oh boy, I sure hope not.  If everything else goes up, how can any entity (Village, schools, businesses) expect to continue their level of services if they do NOT raise the amount of money coming in or have no "bank" to cover costs?  Think about how much we now pay for eggs, milk, gas, etc.  Do we stop eating or driving?  

I challenge any one of us to think of when any service or product was either a). at the same price it was five years ago OR b). cheaper.  Boy if you do, please let us know - we'll all go shop there.  I have not yet checked my tax bill but do not recall any substantive increase in recent years.  In this economy, as much as I want it to remain the same, I fear this is unrealistic.  Please do not get me wrong, I'm not advocating for a huge increase in taxes; however, I must employ common sense too.  

Al, I must respectfully disagree on Mr. Knodl.  I happen to know someone whose name was used without their knowledge and it greatly upset him. This is a disgraceful tactic and I do hope that it is investigated properly.  

Thank you.  

Thanks to the B of E for holding our kids hostage.  Is first grade next?  Are you going to start going grade by grade until you get your precious referendum passed?  We could be the only district in the country that has half day 5th grade.  What a joke.

Hey Denny and Random - if you feel taxes aren't high enough - you can certainly send in more than your tax bill - I'm sure the Village or School Board won't mind.

Taxed to the Max - since you are already overburdened, may I suggest relocation to states with lower taxes or rural unincorporated areas?  Wisconsin in general is at the high end of the tax list unfortunately.  

So Denny we should add to those already high taxes without demanding answers to logical questions????