Friday, March 05, 2010

A little Clere-ity, please.

I have become increasingly perplexed with State Representative Ed Clere's usage of the free weekly campaign ad space afforded him by the Tribune.

In his latest column, Clere defends his support of property tax caps in relation to proposed school closings by claiming that "property tax caps have almost nothing to do with it."

What he fails to mention, however, is the school funding scheme changes that were necessary to facilitate the property tax caps. Realizing that schools would suffer from the caps, the governor and some state legislators changed the funding stream that supports school systems' general funds. Instead of being supported partially by local property taxes and partially by state revenue as they had been in the past, a decision was made to make state revenue the only source of school general funds so that local property taxes, which would be lessened by the caps, could be removed from that particular equation.

In order to gain support for the caps, citizens were promised by cap advocates that a 1% sales tax increase would help cover school funding deficits created by the loss of property tax revenue. Opponents of the change warned that sales and income taxes, the major components of state revenue, were too unstable a source to make school funding dependent on them, particularly during difficult economic times. Those warnings were ignored and between 2008 and 2009, the NA-FC School Corporation's local property tax levy was reduced by 47.9% as Indianapolis took control of school general funds statewide.

Unfortunately, during that same period of 2008 to 2009, state revenues declined despite the sales tax increase. Projections at the time predicted that revenue would continue to decrease through 2011 and still do, with an additional $1.85 billion drop recently predicted for 2010 and 2011. In other words, concerns about the instability of those funding sources were proven valid. Armed with that knowledge, however, property tax cap supporters, including Clere, continued to advocate that the caps be made permanent. Since nearly half the property tax allotment had already been removed from the school corporation's budget and intended replacement revenues were plainly not materializing, it's difficult to believe that local cap advocates did not envision substantial school cuts and/or potential closings resulting from their favored policy.

So while Clere notes that property tax caps have little to do with impending school closings, that's largely because the forced cuts are being made to the NA-FC general fund which, in accordance with policy he supports, is no longer directly connected to property tax revenue in the first place. It makes for nice rhetoric, but confuses rather than clarifies the issue as the caps changed the entire way funding occurs.

Ironically, Clere also says that "legislation I supported last week would allow the schools to replace up to 100 percent of the amount the governor cut. The replacement cash would come from funds that normally are restricted." Though again unmentioned, all but one of those other restricted school funds are still supported by local property tax dollars. In combination, his recent statements suggest that when the sales tax revenue stream doesn't work as tax cap advocates said it would, we should use property taxes again as a solution while simultaneously claiming that property taxes have little to do with the situation. Notable, too, is that the cash in question will not "replace" the money being cut. If I lose a $10 bill, moving another, completely different $10 bill from one pocket to the other obviously does not get me the $10 I lost back, regardless of how well I describe the pocket swap.

Perhaps even more generally confounding is that while Clere and other state level cap advocates suggest that putting more money in the classroom is their ultimate goal, they've chosen to marry teacher salaries, paid out of the general fund, to the verifiably unstable sales tax revenue stream while leaving capital, debt service, and other funding tied to the more stable property tax source. Governor Daniels, too, has made much of exorbitant new school construction as a waste of resources. If that's the problem, why not just purposely cut capital and/or construction funding instead of threatening teacher and aid positions? Exurban demographics and party allegiance provide clues to a possible answer, but I'm not sure that alone is enough to explain such a convoluted approach to stated goals.

It's clear that Clere's a talented writer. What's less clear as a result of that writing is what his intentions regarding our local schools actually are. I think we deserve a much better explanation than what we've gotten so far.

21 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Crickets chirp, pins drop. Somewhere a dog barks at the baleful outline of his shadow. A ward heeler yawns.

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  4. Personally, I'm willing to pay more taxes if it improves public education. I also recognize that there's more than one side to most arguments.

    Ed's in the last day or two of the legislative session at the Capitol so he's at his busiest point of the year.

    It's certainly fair to ask Ed to defend his positions. I suspect he'll speak/write more on the schools issue when the session is over.

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  5. Would his view be any different if he wasn't a realtor and his kids went to Silver Street?

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  6. From a NA-FC school corporation slideshow:

    What is the root of the problem?

    *2 years ago, State leaders designed a new formula to re-distribute tax dollars. Property taxes were traded for higher sales taxes.

    *Property taxes (stable) were replaced by income tax, sales tax and gambling $ (unstable).

    *Public schools became dependent upon the economy.

    *The economy slowed. Revenue from income, sales, and gambling declined against their predictions.

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  7. With all due respect to Mr. Clere the man, Clere the politician has turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.

    He supports, either by choice or by political necessity, the regime that has caused this mess.

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  8. Dan - I am SOOOOOOO agreed with you. I'll pay, pay, pay, pay and pay some more taxes to keep our schools strong.

    A very large part of the reason we moved our family from the Highlands neighborhood in Louisville some five years ago was for the Floyd County schools. If I need to pay more taxes to keep the system strong, I would do it in a heartbeat.

    But, Mitch "no new taxes" and Ed "carry the republican water" Clere have failed us horribly in this regard. I think the new proposals tendered by the school board superintendent are a disgrace. Necessary, perhaps, but a sad, sad, sad day for all of us with elementary and middle school aged kids in Floyd County.

    I was amused to recieve Clere's "Allowing Flexibility in Education" flier in the mail today, just two days after "Black Wednesday" for the NAFC schools. Guess the PR machine goofed on the timing of that one.

    He concludes by stating that "...I assure you that I will continue to fight to give schools, teachers and students every option to succeed by raising flexibility in funding in during these difficult economic times".

    Time to put his money where his mouth is and get something done. All our kids are depending on it. Whether its taking credit for a few calls to bring folks together (ala Sewer Fix) or something even more proactive, I cant imagine sleeping at night while my district's schools were getting shredded.

    No elementary field trips, no elementary extra curricular activities...what a sad day.

    Prove me wrong, Ed. Help us, and prove me wrong. I beg you as a tax paying father of 3 Floyd County school kids - do something...

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  9. “Though again unmentioned, all but one of those other restricted school funds are still supported by local property tax dollars”
    “to the verifiably unstable sales tax revenue stream while leaving capital, debt service, and other funding tied to the more stable property tax source”

    Capital, debt service, and other funding are the unmentioned funds.

    “If that's the problem, why not just purposely cut capital and/or construction funding instead of threatening teacher and aid positions?”

    Cutting the capital and/or construction funding would not have solved the problem. As you said before, capital and construction funds comes from property tax. By law school corporations couldn’t use these funds to pay teachers.

    What you are asking for Jeff, is what Ed’s amendment is trying to accomplish.

    I agree with Governor Daniels that school cooperation over the past decades became spend happy. This needed to stop. Ed’s amendment will draw funds away for exuberant capital projects, like the ones we have seen here in Floyd County, and reunite that money with teachers pay.

    The money is there to keep the schools open but at the cost of building or renovating schools.
    I think that you are being overly critical of Ed and not looking at the whole picture and that includes overspending by school corporations in Floyd County and the rest of the State.

    I will finish by saying that I agree with what you are attempting to convey in this post. Property tax is one of the few “fair” taxes. The law suit that started this whole fiasco was brought upon us by individuals that wanted to abolish property tax. I see the change as a way to shift tax burdens away from wealthy property owners to poorer individuals.

    That is why I didn’t vote for Daniels.

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  10. Senate Bill 309, if passed, would allow all Indiana school corporations to use 5% of their capital projects budget for general funds, rather than the 3.5% they are allowed to use now. I do not know what the figures are for the current capital projects budget and I do not know if they are even using the 3.5% that they are allowed. This could make a difference in the actual amount of money they need to find. Our school corporation won't wait to see if Senate Bill 309 is going to pass ... which Ed is in favor of passing ... before doing their hatchet job. Further, they are not doing all they can. I sure would have liked the opportunity to vote on the referendum, but they decided not to give me that opportunity. Maybe it wouldn't pass - - but shouldn't positions being funded by our tax dollars at least exhaust ALL options? Finally, they're telling us there are only three options. Who made them the end-all, know all. Fact is, they only THOUGHT of three options ... or only PRESENTED three options. There might actually be more options they didn't think about. Why don't they include the public in brain-storming? Maybe they think we're not smart enough.

    As an aside, I believe we're only down $3.4 million rather than $6.6. Take a gander at their pdf and look at the page titled: “What is the cumulative impact?” It goes on to say:

    - Because of the initial 0% NA-FC Schools were preparing to cut $3.2 million (slow track)

    - The additional December cuts now require us to reduce $6.6 Million to blance current program with new adjusted revenue. (fast track)

    - We have $4 million (5%) of Cash Reserves on hand.

    We already made $3.2 million in cuts last year, losing several teaching positions, doing away with block schedule, some middle school PE and some other things.

    Also, according to the Resources for Results committee's data, the savings of closing a school is about $350,000. The current recommendation is to close four schools, but retain Galena for FCHS and CANA for pre-K. That means we're RIGHT back to the their vendettas against Pine View and Silver Street, which they plan to immediately put up for sale. I suspect they already have buyers lined up. Anyway, that actually means they save $700,000 by closing those schools ... plus the salaries of 70 non-teaching jobs.

    Question EVERYTHING!

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  11. Kathy if you are still there has any groups been meeting to discuss options.

    I haven't seen anything on the website about such.

    I've been told that they were supposed to have the new redistricting online but I haven't seen anything.

    If the send Silver Street Elm kids to Slate Run how would you feel about it.

    Before all this new stuff came up when they wanted to close Silver Street down my understanding was most of the children would go to SEJ.

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  12. Kathy, I also remember when Floyd County had a bond referendum in the early 90's or late 80's that was for the expansion and renovation of New Albany and County schools. The bond issue was passed, making county taxes higher. If the people were willing to do it then maybe they are willing to do it again.

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  13. I'm sorry I missed your post until now - I left the house right after my post.

    I would love to meet with a group tomorrow or Monday during the day. However, I don't know where to meet, but we could figure out something.

    I know the teachers were told that the Silver Street students would attend Fairmont and Slate Run.

    How would I feel? My youngest will be in 6th grade next year, so technically, "this doesn't affect me" (as some people might say). However, I will feel like our historical school has been deliberately neglected for 20 years (because they've been on a mission to close it for about that long) and now they are closing it because of "the condition of the facility" (Hibbard's words). I would be upset that our neighborhood kids would no longer be able to walk to school. I would be upset that a K-12 walkable campus will be no more. I will be VERY upset if their actions cause my property value to drop by 25%. I will be ... am ... upset that they are so short-sighted that they can't seem to get it through their thick heads that SMALL is actually a GOOD thing, or that it doesn't take state-of-the-art bells and whistles to impart a stellar education. I'm VERY upset that they can't realize that big schools actually do have drawbacks. If I had my way, we would reopen all the schools that have ever closed and fix all the boundaries so that all children could have a walkable neighborhood and a small, intimate school atmosphere where everybody knows everybody. I'd even build more high schools. Too many "average" children become invisible in monstrosities. I think if they had their way, they'd close all the schools and create one, single, enormous campus
    if they could. To hell with neighborhoods and communities.

    Yes Jameson, even though my children wouldn't be attending Silver Street next year even if it remained open ... yes ... I would be upset for a multitude of reasons.

    Yes, back in the mid-90's, they went door-to-door getting signatures for the referendum for the NAHS pool. The pool was supposed to be available to the public to use at certain times, but that only lasted about one season and then the school corporation said they couldn't afford to pay the life guard or something ridiculous like that. Also, part of that referendum was to make major renovations to Silver Street. There were even blue-prints drawn up. However, after the pool was finished, Silver Street again got the short-end of the stick and the money AND blueprints disappeared. To me, it seems illegal to get signatures for something specific, and then not fulfill your obligations.

    Did I answer all of your questions? I'm sorry - I'm passionate.

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  14. Note - I think it was the mid-90's that they went door-to-door. I don't have that exact date.

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  15. No need to apologize Kathy I share most of your sentiments.

    I know that you have put a tremendous amount of time, effort, and self into all of this.

    If you or anyone else comes up with a meeting time or place I'll be there.

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  16. Right now, it's just a matter of coming up with a meeting place. Any ideas? Anybody?

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  17. A big thanks to Destinations for doing this for us on such short notice!

    Place: Destinations Booksellers
    604 East Spring Street, New Albany

    Time: 1PM-3PM

    Dueling Grounds will also be open to serve, but without soup.

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  18. Kathy, I just came in from painting and saw the notices from Randy. It's on the marquee. I'll link at my Facebook page just in case that helps.

    And NAC's space is your for the next few days. Just get the information to me, and I'll get it out.

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  19. Thank you so much Roger!!

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  20. Thanks Randy for opening up your business to the public for such an important issue. Like you have done for other issues.

    Just saw the times for the meeting. Hope everything went well.

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