[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: More Truth in Taxation - 281

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
More Truth in Taxation - 281
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1196832641.shtml


   I braved the elements to attend the Robbinsdale Schools (District 281)
   Truth in Taxation meeting. By law, the levy is such that they don't
   have to hold this public hearing, but took the time to hold it anyway,
   and I sincerely appreciate it.
   Once they had a quorum of the board, they started at 6:55 pm, 5
   minutes early. I thought this was bad form, but since I again got to
   watch the 10 minute Colleen Needles "14 reasons why your property tax
   fluctuates" video, so no real harm done.
   They also didn't have the 17 page summary on their web site as I
   posted, just last year's. They passed out this year's at the meeting.
   I did find the full budget earlier today, however, and printed out a
   few pages to take with me.
   After the Needles video, a finance official went through the 17 pages,
   maybe another 10 minutes. Unfortunately, he spoke in his native tongue
   of UFARS, not English. No wonder the referendum failed, I thought.
   Nobody wanted to complain about their assessment, so we moved on to
   the failed referendum. I spoke second, basically saying their numbers
   were too confusing, at times seemingly contradictory, that's why it
   failed. We had an interesting, if too short dialog, and the board
   seemed genuinely interested in my point of view.
   The senior citizen (and I'm not far from that status myself) that
   spoke after me raised another good point, about charter schools, one
   reason for the slightly declining enrollment for ISD 281 the past few
   years. Are they resigned to that fate, a slowly shrinking district,
   not the juggernaut of old that could compete with Edina?
   I came away with a couple of fresh perspectives for future posts, plus
   the pleasure of finally meeting Lassie of the Freedom Dogs and SD45.