[Vision2020] MSD is at it again!

[heirdoug at netscape.net]

My latest installment for those under the ban!

Wednesday, January 24, 2007 2:13 PM Right-Mind


MSD to send out newsletter to residents regarding levy increase
I’ll post a copy of this as soon as I get it.

I’ve asked this rhetorical question before: why, when the number of 
students are increasing, do the school districts say they need more 
money; and, when the number of students are decreasing, they say they 
need more money?

Here’s what one local blogger had to say about this:

But in this case, and in this election, I think all these standard 
issues are really beside the point. The real point in this election is 
one of simple affordability. The major industry in town (the University 
of Idaho) is in serious decline. Our Moscow civic leadership has been 
busy chasing new prospective businesses out of town. Within the next 
year, a good portion of the tax base is going to move just across the 
state line, and the businesses in the new mall there will no doubt set 
up some blinking lights to summon Moscow shoppers over. Ross Perot's 
famous phrase about the giant sucking sound comes to mind.

Another illustration that comes to mind is the one about champagne 
tastes and a beer budget. And you can't chase all the champagne vendors 
out of town, and then complain about the beer. As a simple matter of 
economics, tax support for the MSD requires a thriving tax base. When 
you cut the latter, you cut the former. Some might want to complain, if 
this levy goes down, that it was the nefarious work of home schoolers, 
Christian conservatives, or what not. But this one appears to me to 
have been done already, without any opponents of "government schools" 
lifting a finger.

No, this was done by the liberals running the Moscow show. You can't 
take a chain saw to the orchard, and wonder resentfully the following 
autumn about the apple shortage.

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Moscow School District is moving forward with plans for its $1.97 
million supplemental levy increase, which will go before voters March 
27.

Superintendent Candis Donicht worked with the district’s school board 
members during their Tuesday meeting to develop a draft of an 
informational newsletter that will hit mailboxes in the coming weeks.

The newsletter will give a brief explanation of the indefinite 
supplemental levy. It also will explain how the levy increase works, 
what it will cost taxpayers, and what it pays for within the district. 
The newsletter also will answer other basic questions.

Board members discussed changing the time the polls would be open for 
the election. Board clerk Annette Erickson reported to the board the 
effects of a 7:30 a.m. opening of the polls that had been suggested at 
their December meeting by board member Margaret Dibble. The board 
decided to maintain its current plan to have the election from 8 a.m. 
to 8 p.m. at the Exhibit Building of the Latah County Fairgrounds.

Board members also discussed how to support and offer their assistance 
to groups of parents who want to support the levy.

In other news, Donicht reported on the district’s first participation 
in the city of Moscow’s 18-month long-range planning process. Three 
district administrators and two board members participated in a 
facilitator training session about 10 days ago. If selected by the 
city, they will go into sections of the community to help gather input 
from residents on issues such as neighborhoods and growth.


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