Last night the board heard from their bonding expert who went through the financing scenarios and estimates for homeowner tax increases. For a median priced home of $89,000 a ball park number the additional tax for the full $242 million looks like around $60-$80/year. The cost rises sharply for more expensive homes because the exemptions have less effect. They'll have to come out with more detailed information as they get further into the process.
Then they got into a discussion of categorizing and prioritizing the work, which went off track, so I left. Apparently the consensus (as reported by this morning's JG) was that everything in the scope was essential so prioritizing wasn't necessary. We'll just have to take their word for that. The only mention of the Capital Fund which is intended for building upkeep was that the tax caps have decreased their money and there was no prospect of getting more from the legislature. There was no mention of the money that's been diverted for "racial balance" and whether that will continue.
Also proposed was relacing Snyder altogether with a new building at double the cost ($100 million) of renovation. That has nothing to do with looking for a cost effective solution for taxpayers. That's a Mark Giaquinta strategy to get votes for the project in the NE part of town, which is crucial to getting it past the voters.
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Why would GiaQuinta care about getting votes in the NE part of town? Half of Snider kids don't live in the NE part of town. If you don't believe me, why do you think their academic scores are falling?
I would guess that he thinks the people out there are the ones most likely to vote in a primary and they'll think they are going to benefit from a new building. That area was a goldmine for signatures on blue petitions last time but maybe this time they'll think Wendy is on the level and that GiaQuinta adds to her credibility. Right?
I noticed Snider's scores went down. How did they get off probation?
NE Fort Wayne students are either homeschooled or attend Blackhawk Christian, Bishop Dwenger, Horizon Christian, Concordia or Central Christian.
Sadly, this reminds me of Indianapolis ten years! Indy was loosing students, way before Charters, to private schools, homeschooling or the township systems, and they wanted to rennovate. However, until 2002, they went caustiosly to do it. IPS only replaced the schools that were literally falling apart, and replaced them. Fort Wayne's schools are better x10, then Indy's better school (except new ones.) The situation over schools meant that you only have the ultra-rich or the ultra-poor in school, and no middle class, they fled to Carmel, Avon or Fishers. I see a mass exodus to Ossian and Bluffton, soon!
I fortunately work for a private school out of state, where one in five of our students grow in homes without electricity, not by choice, and they all graduate. The total cost per student, including all non-academic cost, is $6,700.00. If you take away the non-academic cost, the cost is %5,600.00 per student. Mind-boggling!
Gary and Indianapolis have each closed around 20 schools in the past several years. About a half dozen of the ones closed in Indy had been listed for renovations under the bond issue passed by voters. Needless to say IPS will spend that money somewhere else.
Fort Wayne is going down the same road. We might have two decent high schools left north of Coliseum if Wendy weren't importing 25% of their students in from the south side. Massive spending on NSHS and SSHS did nothing to improve those schools academically or keep people from fleeing. Why would it turn out differently with Snyder?
Their unwillingness to prioritize shows that they have no regard for those who will be paying the bill. I'll be voting NO.
A question for the host. How can the school board's overpaid consultants expect revenue increases from property taxes when the state mandated one percent limitiation has already been reached while property values continue to trend downward?
It seems to me that the township voters would have to approve rates in excess of 1% -- and that is pretty iffy in this economy.
That's exactly how it works now. Instead of leaving us (taxpayers) with the burden of mounting a costly and time consuming campaign to ask them not to rob us blindly (thank you very much for that, Evert and friends), the burden is now placed upon the school board to convince us of the need. The tax caps can be exceeded, if passed through a referendum.
There's no doubt in my mind that they are not going to make this an open process, and therefore have something to hide. But there's no guarantee of how this will turn out. The Code Blue petition won by something like a 2 to 7 margin, yet Evert, one of it's leaders, was subsequently defeated for a seat on the school board.
Remember, the American tax-payer wants it all - lower taxes and increased services. With such unrealistic expectations, there is really no way to predict how this will turn out.
My hope is that they keep it at $150 million. That might pass. If they go beyond that, then I hope they ask for a lot, because the bigger the number the more likely it will be rejected.
Now, I'll step back and leave it to Evert to correct my mistakes.
Phil - You summed it up pretty well. Last time we had to get 100 signatures on white petitions to get the remonstance started. The sentiment was about 4 to 1 against, which held up in the actual petition drive.
It turned out they never had a prayer of winning. But you couldn't tell them that. They were on a different planet then and they still are. They're now banking that a ballot referendum instead of a petition drivewill turn out differently. Who knows.
Gadfly,
If the voters approve a bond via referendum...it is outside the circuit breaker. Thus they can still tax up to the 1-3% depending on the property type and the debt service from a bond authorized by referendum is not calculated in the circuit breaker.
Anybody have any ideas for yard signs?
How about...Stop School Bullying...fire Mark and Wendy!
Evert, what is the deadline for them to announce the amount they are requesting in order for it to appear on the spring ballot? I think it would be to their advantage to wait until the last minute in order to make it more difficult for their opposition to organize aginst it.
Public Meetings:
Nov 1 @ Memorial Park, 6:30 pm
Nov 8 @ Northrop, 2 pm
Nov 9 @ Harrison Hill, 6:30 pm
Nov 10 @ Snider, 6:30 pm
Phil -
I believe they have to decide pretty soon, like before the end of the year to get it on the ballot by May. There will be much more time to organize than there was for the remonstrance.
Maybe sanity will prevail on the board instead of GiaGuinta or, like you said, that they get it up high enough to blow themselves out of the water like last time and get nothing.
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