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The taxes raised so far to pay for the Red Plan are just the beginning. This is the chart that explains the financing. The first row was proposed by the District but not approved by the MDE (Minnesota Dept of Education). The second two rows show what the School Board now plans to do. In the pink box (my colors) you can see the $154 million approved so far this year. This, of course, is shy of the $293 million the plan needs. You can see the rest of the planned spending in the blue box (my colors) That will total $111 million which the Board plans to raise in 2011. At the last Board meeting Gary Glass spoke about these additional taxes only to be interrupted by Chairman Nancy Nilsen who told Gary that the taxes being levied now were it. She told him there was no more to come. Nancy was then corrected by the School District's bond counsel who mentioned that another $90 million would be needed in 2011. Oops! The blue box shows three additional levies in 2011 which will total $111 million in new taxes. This does not include the operational levy planned for this fall. That would be another $6 million a year. The Board may have postponed the additional levy until 2011 to avoid anger over tax increases and to help pass the fall operational levy. However, it puts the Red Plan at risk by giving a new School Board elected in 2009 the power to determine whether it will levy to complete the Red Plan.
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