2012.02.12
NRV: Shocking people into action
Advertise a scary, improbable tax increase
Last year around this time, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors chose to prevent a full debate of potential tax increases. They should not make the same mistake this year.
When localities advertise their budgets for public discussion, they must include how much they might raise the tax rate.
The Board should advertise the full rate increase huh? Sure it should. Just as soon as someone can explain how the school board, already responsible for about 90% of the needed increase, can justify it’s most recent move. The only thing that rivals the lack realism and fiscal irresponsibility in that move is it’s inherent selfishness.
So if I’m following it correctly, the reasoning of the school board is that just as private workers do, all government workers should be expected to pay for part of their retirement. All government employees except teachers that is. Similarly, just as many in the private sector have gone years without a pay raise, all government workers should expect to tighten their belts and forgo raises for the indeterminate future. All public empoyees except teachers that is. All government agencies should seek to eliminate waste and non-essential programs, making do with what they have. All government agencies except the school system that is.
For months now we’ve been hearing about how it’s time for government employees to feel the same pain everyone else has been feeling. We hear this argument anytime someone advocates a cut in the healthcare benefits for government workers, or when there is talk of increasing the portion government workers are expected to pay for their insurance or retirement. We have certainly heard it ad nauseum anytime there is talk of raises for public employees. Why then, does the school board consider it’s government employees to be so much more deserving than the rest?
Oh yeah, I forgot. They’re “tired of hearing about the deficit” and apparently have adopted ScottM’s philosophy that the government never really runs out of money. “Just continue to feel entitled and demand more. It will come from somewhere.” Apparently the RTEB feels the same way given their position that the supevisors should advertise a tax rate to support this ridiculous stance.
The funny thing is, given that we are talking about educating our children, I could almost go with it save one fact. It has been my experience as a parent with a child in the Montgomery County school system and is my opinion that we aren’t getting our money’s worth now. Sometimes kids learn from seeing responsible, prudent behavior from adults. Making irrational demands or having unrealistic expectations in the face of life’s harsh realities is yet another trait I would prefer the school’s not instill in my children.
To put this in perspective, given the school board’s latest stunt, they are projecting a deficit of around 15.5 million dollars. Roanoke County is facing a similar situation, though, with a 10 million dollar deficit, there deficit is only 2/3 of Montgomery’s. Roanoke County’s proposed solution was to close up to five schools and look for other places to cut costs. In contrast, the wizards on Montgomery County’s school board felt like it would be a good time to ask for a raise and funding for new projects.
I couldn’t disagree with this editorial more. The Board of Supervisors should not enable the school board’s irresponsible behavior. Nor should they coddle them by wasting time discussing unrealistic demands that will never and should never be approved. If the school board insists on acting like petulant children, trying to gain political favor by advocating things they know cannot happen, the Board should respond in kind. Slap down this ridiculous proposal with no further discussion and tell them to come back with something realistic.
Comment by Chuck — February 12, 2012 @ 2:32 pm
The supervisors probably should set the advertised tax rate at 10 or 12 cents and be done with it. In the past, it didn’t matter how many people showed up to support a higher tax rate or the school budget, there was always some hidden crowd of people who didn’t show up but who held sway over a majority of the board who voted to keep the tax rate artificially low. They have now helped put the county in the state it is in now. Couple that with the actions of both the school board and supervisors in giving in to the Riner whiners to build them a school that could have waited a couple of years. Yeah, their building is inadequate as was Blacksburg High School, but when the BHS gym collapsed that kind of moved up the need to replace that school from a few years down the road to right now. Given the state of the economy and questions about the budget, the folks in Riner should have been told they would have to suck it up like Blacksburg has for years. But they got their school, so now they need to show up in droves to support whatever budget the supervisors decide to go with.
Comment by Joe Hokie — February 12, 2012 @ 9:50 pm
Repairing the old Blacksburg High School building would have been the smart move. Bashing the folks from Riner is childish at best.
Comment by Blue John — February 13, 2012 @ 8:06 am
Amen Blue John. Talk about a personally skewed view of what actually happened.
Comment by Chuck — February 13, 2012 @ 1:12 pm
OK, then please Blue John and Chuck, fill us in with the truth of what did and should have happened. Why did Riner need and get the schools RIGHT NOW when they could have been delayed (BHS damage notwithstanding and current economy still in the tank) and why should Blacksburg have gotten a repaired building that the engineers said was not worth repairing? Or are you claiming that the engineers were wrong?
Comment by Joe Hokie — February 13, 2012 @ 4:46 pm
@5,
I don’t recall anything from the engineering firms that stated the building was “not worth repairing”. Enlighten us please.
For what it’s worth, I live in Blacksburg and my daughter attended high school here.
Comment by Blue John — February 13, 2012 @ 5:16 pm
Let’s see Joe. According to you, “Given the state of the economy and questions about the budget, the folks in Riner should have been told they would have to suck it up like Blacksburg has for years.”
Really?!? How old was the “not worth repairing” Blacksburg building? Built in the 70′s wasn’t it. So while in your view of history, Blacksburg may have been sucking it up for years, the people of Riner were “sucking it up” for 30 years before BHS was even built. Auburn High School is 74 years old. How many times did they get pushed back so Blacksburg or some other district could get something that “couldn’t wait?”
The simple fact is that the engineering report came back and said the school could be repaired. In fact, the Board of Supervisors had originally voted to repair instead of replace. However, that wouldn’t do for Blacksburg. They wanted a new school right now. To hell with who was scheduled to get the next school. To hell with whether or not the County could afford it. According to VA Tech’s president, they wouldn’t be able to hire good professors if they don’t get a new high school. According to the hospital, they won’t be able to hire doctors if Blacksburg doesn’t get a new high school. According to the behavior of the Blacksburg parents at the meetings, grass would stop growing, the mail wouldn’t run, Starbuck’s would stop making double-mocha-half-caf-skinny-frappacinos, blah, blah, blah . . . life as we know it would end if a new high school wasn’t built. So the Board caved and went for a construction plan they knew they would be lucky to be able to pay for in good economic times, let alone bad.
No matter how badly you want it to be otherwise, Blacksburg was the school that wasn’t due to be replaced. Blacksburg was the district asking to jump ahead on the schedule. So why don’t you tell us? Instead of doing the fiscally responsible thing and repairing the old school with existing monies and sticking to the existing school replacement schedule thus spreading the cost out over time in an affordable manner that didn’t send the County dangerously deeper into debt, why couldn’t BLACKSBURG wait?
Comment by Chuck — February 13, 2012 @ 8:41 pm
I’m not even going to try because there is no overcoming the “Blacksburg always gets everything” even though it isn’t true. But, what the heck . . . Yeah, the school was built in the ’70s and it wasn’t right from the beginning because the as-designed open classroom concept was passe even before the doors opened. Attempts to convert the poorly laid-out place into a regular classroom building never worked. Then the shoddy construction, which lots of people knew about due to the many cracks and other problems (and ignored by the upper administration when reported), fully came to light when the gym fell off. As the engineers began to look at the rest of the building, they discovered more problems and offered solutions. Yeah, it could have been “fixed” but at what level of safety. Then the Blacksburg building official got into the act (interesting that she and the fire marshal hadn’t been overly concerned about the place before then) and upped the ante on what it would take to reoccupy the building. At that point, the cost/benefit ratio wasn’t in a good place as far as many people were concerned.
As far as Riner, was it absolutely critical that the building be replaced this year? If things were so bad, why weren’t parents complaining years ago? The school board sat around in the ’80s as enrollments were growing and schools were horribly overcrowded. It took parents from Blacksburg pushing the school board and supervisors to get things moving, at that Falling Branch was built before Kipps “because problems were worse in Christiansburg” even though no parents from C’burg ever showed up at a meeting to comment. How come East Mont, which is only half full, got jumped ahead of Auburn if things are so bad there? Perhaps it is that school that is busting the budget.
Comment by Joe Hokie — February 13, 2012 @ 11:47 pm