Rezoning Plan = Property Tax Hike
Pat Nolan makes a good point in his column:
In all the controversy over the newly approved Metro Schools rezoning plan, I am surprised the local media has ignored one important aspect that is likely to loom large in the months ahead. The plan promises to provide Metro's inner city schools with $6 million of extra monies to make sure all students have access to a quality education. While the rezoning plan will save Metro some money by allowing it run more efficiently (Metro has lots of schools that have excess capacity and the new plan will require less cross-town busing), finding the extra money promised to inner city students will be difficult to do without (using those dreaded words)....a property tax increase.Why? Well, remember the current "fully-funded" school budget is balanced through the use of $10 million in reserve funds, one-time monies that must be replaced in next year's budget. Sure, there will be some growth in overall revenues for schools, but I doubt it will be enough to make up for the one-time reserve funds being gone and pay for all the status-quo needs of the school system (teacher raises, fuel and energy costs, etc.). So you can look at the extra $6 million as the ground-floor of a property tax increase school officials will have to ask Mayor Dean and the Metro Council to fund next spring in order to keep their promises in implementing the new school zoning in the fall of 2009.
Wonder if that'll make all the fans of this "neighborhood schools" plan think again? Of course, no matter what school board member Mark North says, there's no guarantee that any extra money for Pearl-Cohn will ever be spent. In fact, if the mayor goes to the public under the new Charter amendment asking for a property tax increase to improve Pearl-Cohn, that's guaranteed to fail. So no worries.
Comments
Before this year's budget passed, Metro Schools had a reserve of $62 million. There is more than enough money left in the reserves to fund the $6 million proposed increase. Moreover, voters are now the ones responsible for approving or disapproving a property tax increase (unless that is challenged in court by the Department of Law or the Mayor's Office).
Posted 07/17/2008 at 09:48:48 AMEd Kindall uses another scare tactic, but with so many people coming together and it being a new day and time there are more opportunities than before to make something work such as the rezoning plan. These tactics are what has caused the system to be in corrective failing status. Ed Kindall is old news and needs to go. People need to stop buying into the hype. That tactic won't work anymore. The governor, mayor, business community, teachers union, and many others are all working hard to make something new work and if people will get off the negativity train and try something different for a change instead of singing the same ole song and dance that has been done in the past no progress will be made. Give the plan a chance and get over it Ed.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 09:59:58 AMThey can't just keep spending their reserve funds. That pot's not bottomless. And yes, any property tax increase will require voter approval. That's my point. No way is Nashville going to vote to raise taxes to improve schools for poor, black children.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 10:04:20 AMA new day? That's hysterical. They meet secretly in blatant disregard for sunshine laws. They bully and strong-arm their critics. They try to influence votes with heavy campaign donations and play a little shell game with their PACs to circumvent contribution limits. I love it.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 10:16:20 AMJeff, I appreciate your passion. You care deeply about this. I wonder if I am missing something. The plan would increase the percentage of blacks at Pearl-Cohn from 87 to 90. Is that right? Also, students could still go to Hillwood if they wished. Is that right?
I understand the posturing that some people engage in (elected officials) but am at a loss when it comes to evaluating the source of your passion.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 10:41:18 AMMartin, you're basically right about Pearl-Cohn. It's 88% black now (which is highly segregated by any standard, yet that apparently was OK with Kindall and the NAACP), and will go to 93% black under the new plan, with an increased enrollment of 140-150 students. Rising juniors and seniors who will be rezoned from Hillwood to Pearl-Cohn are grandfathered in and will still attend Hillwood unless they opt out. Most of the others will still have the option to attend Hillwood, I believe.
As to the secret meetings, here's something for Jeff to explore. I was watching the board meeting again last night on TV. During Kindall's presentation, he said he had already discussed his proposed changes with representatives of the NAACP. The rest of the board was hearing his proposal for the first time. Seems to me that this would also be as much a violation of the open meetings law as what allegedly took place with the people you mysteriously refer to as "Chamber types."
Posted 07/17/2008 at 10:56:04 AMJeff, you're certainly right about the pot not being bottomless. But, when it all comes down to it, what do you have the reserves there for? My opinion is that this type of unanticipated funding is exactly why Metro Schools has the reserve in the first place. Also, if the additional $6 million was taken from the reserve, the amount of the reserve would still be about 6% of the total operating budget of MNPS (already taking into account the withdrawal from the reserve for this year's budget). Since 5% is usually customary for the reserve balance, 6% would certainly be feasible.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 11:19:39 AMIsn't the Scene supporting the NAACP's position in all this? And wasn't the NAACP's demand that $6 million be taken immediately and invested in the Pearl-Cohn cluster for this year? And wasn't that money supposed to come out of the reserve fund?
Posted 07/17/2008 at 11:25:05 AMJeff:
What's your real agenda here?
Haven't you read any of the posts, especially the poignant post from "parent" who talks about the fact that the members of the task force were volunteers who accepted a thankless task.
Each member of the school board invited one volunteer. Including Ed Kindall and the three members who voted against the zoning plan. He and his constituents were represented in this process.
The task force also obviously anticipated the objections of Kindall and other members of the black community by pledging lots of additional resources to Pearl Cohn. You've obviously recognized this, because you're doing everything you can to claim that these moneys won't be devoted to this purpose. That's a prediction, not a fact.
Posting on another board, 'runsatthepool" is right when she says Kindall scored a victory on behalf of his constituents and is too stupid to recognize it.
And why do you think Chamber of Commerce is the axis of evil? I view their interest in Metro Schools, and that of the NAACP, and that of any other community organization except the school prayer nuts, as a positive, as long as their primary priority, like mine, is learning.
Nowhere in any of your posts do you address the fact that Nashville's schools are failing by any measure? Is the academic performance of students at Nashville's schools always secondary to whether there are enough black kids at each school in the judgment of Ed Kindall or the NAACP? Is it more important to devote financial resources to running buses than to teachers, buildings, teacher's aids and books?
I want to hear a better, more complete answer than Matt Pulle's weak question about why the city's black leaders are opposed to the zoning plan.
And I want you to read the plan and identify the specific areas where it does egregious damage to black students.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 11:33:27 AMJust a couple points in response to some of what has been said:
First, if Jeff is right and there have been secret meetings by more than one member of the school board (and I have heard that from other sources as well, so I think it probably is true) then that violates state sunshine laws. Boyd, you are way off base that Kindall meeting with the NAACP violates open meetings laws because each board member (or other elected official) is allowed to have meetings with constituents where the entire community is not invited. It would be silly to think otherwise. Sunshine laws guard against two or more members of the same governing body meeting in private to make decisions. Kindall discussing potential alternative plans with members of his constituency is in no way a violation of the law.
Second, with regard to the reserves, I think an important point is being missed here: the $6 million is not a one time expense. Part, if not all of it, will be a recurring expense. At the school baord meetings, North made clear that these funds would be used to finance projects at Pearl Cohn (such as offering expanded AP classes) that are not one time expenses. I think Pat Nolan's point (and why are you all jumping on the Scene here...Nolan doesn't work for them) is that the $6 million expense is not a one time expense. And any prudent government is not going to take on recurring expenses with one time money. Which leaves you with one alternative: tax increases or budget cuts elsewhere.
My suggestion: let's not spend a dime of public money or issue a single municipal bond for the proposed convention center and use that money instead for public schools! No tax increase, but more money for our schools! One of the arguments I hear in favor of spending our tax dollars on a billion dollar convention center is that the center will pay for itself through increased tourism tax revenue (and if you believe we're going to bring in enough tourism taxes to cover the bonds in this economy, then I have a lovely bridge in Brooklyn to sell you). If you agree with that logic, then wouldn't a significant investment in public education pay for itself??? We produce smarter graduates with a more valuable degree. Those people would work and live in Nashville, make more money, and pay a lot more taxes than the occassional tourist!
Posted 07/17/2008 at 01:51:44 PM