Property tax bills: Keep your eyes on the ball, and forget the mound of peanut shell games.

Chris Morris is on medical leave, there hasn't yet been a replacement for Elizabeth Beilman -- and hell, Tom May can be 15 or 20 places at once, but not 30, so it looks like it's Erin Walden on the education beat as the superintendent of schools explains it's not an increase at all -- and she's to be commended for keeping things straight as the numbers (and fur) fly.

Reached at his down-low command bunker, bond issue advocate Jeff Gahan said he continues to support the Taco Walk, and any tree than disagrees will find itself rendered into campaign finance broadsheets, sleeping with the little fishies.

NAFC superintendent talks tax increases, by Erin Walden (Tom May Content Coagulator)

NEW ALBANY — The truthfulness behind the 2016 referendum marketing statement “not a penny more” was called into question after taxpayers in Floyd County noticed increases on their property tax bill.

During the Monday night school board meeting, New Albany Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. superintendent Brad Snyder explained the increase was one of perception.

According to a presentation by Snyder, the debt rate in 2016 — the year the district pursued the referendum — was .5408 cents. In 2017, the debt rate dipped to .3833 cents and for 2018, the first year of the bond repayment for the referendum, it increased to .4941 cents.

“The campaign was held in 2016 with a very specific pledge to when the debts were repaid. There was a dip [in 2017]. That was the unseen, undiscussed,” Snyder said.

However, residents are only shown on tax bills what they paid last year, Snyder said, so the tax rate and total due for 2016 was not shown to give context to the 2018 figures.

Monday night's agenda was rearranged and the presentation came before public comments rather than after, and each public comment addressed the situation.

Dale Mann, who repeated his request for an independent audit of the district, said, “All these flyers – they were all lies. No increase, not a penny more. That’s all a lie. If you all support it, I’m gonna ask for your resignation ... "

At Strong Towns, Marohn says "I’m one person with one vote and, sadly, despite my strong desire to invest in our schools, I’m compelled to vote NO."

A reminder of rants past, this one from November 4, 2016.

ON THE AVENUES: It’s our big fat Hibbardendum, and Jeff Gahan is carrying the superintendent across the threshold as Metro United Way tosses rice and One Southern Indiana steals all the liquor.

Charles Marohn's testimony isn't a perfect analogy, but it's a reminder of how at times, voices raised in opposition to sacred cows are the most progressive ones of all.

MY "DISINGENUOUS" PUSH TO SAVE A NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL, by Charles Marohn (Strong Towns)

... Without knowing what else to do to nudge the school district towards sanity, I started a Facebook page to save the historic school. My thought was that if I could raise the profile a little bit, I could get the school district to, perhaps, open up to the potential of repurposing that building.

Two things happened. First, the response of this community was overwhelming. As I write this, the page has over 500 supporters — enough to tip the vote in my small town. I’ve been inundated with people wanting to talk about these issues, find ways to improve our neighborhoods and, most importantly, save the school from the wrecking ball. I’m ashamed that I did not anticipate this, but it has been a heartwarming surprise.

The second thing that happened has somewhat offset those good feelings. Not only has the school district doubled-down on their off-street parking rhetoric (and I feel somewhat compelled to say, stretched the truth beyond what I think is friendly in a situation like this), but the collection of insider voices — the newspaper, the chamber, local dignitaries, even some personal friends — have joined to ridicule, when they weren’t outright condemning, any efforts to question the approach.

People I’m very close to have suggested that I’m hurting our area students, threatening the future of the community and basically being a “disingenuous” jerk for not getting on board with the official plan. The newspaper even rolled out the tired bully tactic common to small towns: you didn’t bring up the concern years ago, so shut up, because it’s not valid anymore. I’m a little sickened by it.

I look around and I’m starting to feel the momentum shifting in this place. A sleepy old railroad town that accepted decline and second-rate status is waking up to possibility. The people in charge are no longer aspiring to be a cheaper version of the big box strip in the (showing the early signs of failure) city next door. They are starting to embrace our strengths. So are my neighbors, some of who have put their time and money into fixing up buildings in our struggling downtown. The list of things we can change is growing.

I owe it to them, and I owe it to the future residents of this community — kids and adults alike — to not support a $200 million investment that would irreversibly turn large parts of their neighborhoods into parking lot. I can’t support any more scars to the fabric of these neglected places. I won’t approve of my tax dollars making student’s walks any more dangerous, let alone their parents and those who must walk to get to where they are going. I find these site plans disrespectful.

And I won’t pay for a perfectly good, historic building to be put in the landfill instead of being repurposed, just so we can have a few more parking spots within convenient distance of the front door. The suggestion feels shameful and I can’t imagine what my Depression-era ancestors would say.

We’re making a once-a-generation decision, borrowing money for 25 years in this proposal. With the people of this community finally standing up to push back on the long-accepted decline, I don't feel compelled to settle for a choice between neighborhood schools and neighborhoods. They go together, and I’m going to keep saying that until school district officials grasp it.

Long before the Mightly Trumpolini, New Albany's Genius of the Flood Plain was tossing bales of taxpayer money at departing corporations.

First, the more topical reference.

1,000 Carrier Jobs Trump Celebrates Are Drop in the Bucket of Manufacturing Losses; Indiana alone has lost over 150,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, by Josh Zumbrun (Wall Street Journal)

But Mayor Jeff Gahan's been there with the corporate welfare, although there were no mud anchor t-shirts to be handed out 22 months ago because Pillsbury was making like the Eagles.

As an aside, On the Border was a fine album in its day -- so fresh and vibrant, as opposed to "crony capitalism" economic development handouts.

From January 26, 2015.

---

Information about the Pillsbury "business retention and factory-modernization package."

Two morsels for thought as we await the outcome.

$7 million works out to $3,500 per worker, per year, for five years (based on 400 employees at Pillsbury and Sonoco). From Charlie White's C-J coverage:

General Mills purchased Pillsbury in summer of 2000 from British food company Diageo for $10.5 billion. In fiscal year 2014, General Mills had global net sales of $19.2 billion.

Indiana economic development officials provided General Mills more than $100,000 in incentives in the last 10 years to ensure kept its workforce of about 480. But over the last three to four years, the company shifted manufacturing of some product lines to its more modern operation in Murfreesboro, Tenn., plant. The food giant spent $100 million expanding there four years ago.

Second, there is no reference to the concurrent implications of negotiations between General Mills and the union, as mentioned previously. Is our $7 million in proposed incentives keeping pay as it is, or does it accompany concessions from the union?

In trying to educate myself about these issues, I've been wondering if there's a Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union local in Murfreesboro. If there is, I can't find on-line references to it.

Readers, do you know?

Worth the dough? New Albany may offer $7 million to keep Pillsbury Plant, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

NEW ALBANY — Last week, several New Albany City Council members pledged to diligently work on solutions to keep the General Mills plant open.

On Tuesday, the council will be asked to give its blessing for a $7 million bond package Mayor Jeff Gahan’s administration hopes will stave off the closure, which General Mills announced Jan. 8 could happen within 18 months ...

 ... "We have assembled a business retention and factory-modernization package for our friends at General Mills to consider,” Gahan stated in a news release issued Friday afternoon.

“Our goal is to keep the New Albany facility in continuous operation for as long as possible.”

Our big fat Hibbardendum emerges fully erect: If all them Democrats got beat, how did they manage this tax increase?

Surprised?

Shocked?

Me, too. With numerous themes of societal disaffection combining to produce an overwhelming local landslide for Donald Trump, who gathered almost 59% of the votes cast for president in Floyd County, the NA-FC school corporation’s Hibbardendum – a shiny object construction bond issue – sailed effortlessly past the post, with almost 54% in favor.

This result is complete flip of the totals from the corporation’s first toss of the beanbag in May of 2015, and as such, it’s the only genuine head-scratcher amid Tuesday’s election returns in Floyd County.

In fact, even the Hibbardendum’s staunchest proponents can’t explain its success against the tide of status-quo-wrecking sweeping the planet. The familiar sentiments prefacing Trump’s rise, Brexit and “change” uprisings occurring all around the world have usually been expressed in heated defiance of hoity-toity “expert” opinion; if the usual suspects are for it, then mad-as-hell voters are against it.

Locally, with every political and economic power elite expressing support for the Hibbardendum that verged on the erotic, voters rose up … and agreed.

Was it the sheer force of money and propaganda?

Was it some sort of inner harmonic balance restoration, in that having offered to tear the system down right here, perhaps voters thought it wise to toss alms in the direction of “those kids” over there, albeit without paying very close attention to the devil lurking in the details?

Beats me. Is there a sociologist in the house?

At the same time, accepting Monty Python’s timeless advice at face value and gazing resolutely at the bright side of life, an obvious effort to pack the school board with handpicked Hibbard toadies failed miserably, such that the superintendent might be wise to keep his back facing the nearest wall, at least until he bolts for greener pastures, an inevitability now likely to occur sooner rather than later in spite of his success at relieving rate payers of a cool $87 million.

The corporation was well prepared, and will appear next week before the Plan Commission’s pre-greased and appointed wheels to begin garnering the necessary preliminary approvals to build, build and build some more.

Okay; fine, but to me, these two years of Hibbardendum politicking represent a profound missed opportunity to stage a discussion about the future of public education in a time of social cholera.

Instead, we’re going to do what we do best: Skip the substantive chat, stroke the power elites and construct bright shiny objects in another orgy of campaign finance trickle-down cash.

I say the sooner Superintendent Hibbard leaves town, the better.

Go already. You’ve done enough here, so please, can you do it to someone else, somewhere else?

Endorse THIS: Metro United Way completes seven whole days of pre-referendum stonewalling.

Team Gahan must have tipped them off.

"Not a partisan matter."

Rote verbiage. If I hadn't already determined to vote "no" on the referendum owing to its content, evasions like this, coupled with the hands-interlocked conformity of the community's usual suspects, would have sealed the deal.

Now we'll see.

Our big fat Hibbardendum (1): Follow the PAC-besotted usual suspects' beak wetting in the $87 million schools referendum.

As a preface to this daily ritualistic banging of heads against award-winning splash park water slides, has anyone noticed that D.J. Hines serves as a member of the NA-FC school board member right up until his testimonials are needed for the pro-referendum effort, at which point he reverts yet again to humble real estate mogul?

Do they really believe we don't notice things like this? But Tom Jones over at the Hartfield Company -- that guy can still effing bring it.

It's not unusual at all, so the Courier-Journal's Kirsten Clark follows the money, including D.J.'s cool thousand, in a survey of the most concentrated lobbying effort on behalf of beak-wetting-as-usual in Floyd County since ... since ... well, since when?

This well-lubricated, pile-driven offensive might well be classified as sui generis -- and you can look it up, Shane, though I doubt you'l bother. The underlining is mine.

Campaigns ramp up spending in school referendum

Political action committees on both sides of a $87-million referendum for Floyd County schools have upped their organization and spending from last year after a similar attempt to improve school buildings failed by a narrow margin.

"The Families for Floyd County PAC has done things differently this time," said Michele Day, an organizer of pro-referendum PAC, which is campaigning on behalf of New Albany-Floyd County Schools. "The PAC is considerably larger than it was previously."

On the other side of the issue, a Greenville-based citizens group this year formed its own PAC, not so much to be more competitive with Families for Floyd County, but just as a safety precaution, said P.J. Moore, speaking on behalf of Preserve and Protect Floyd County. While the group spent more than last year, it's still less than a tenth of the pro-referendum PAC.

"They've doubled down. They've increased the bond. They've hired a PR firm so they can be slick about it," Moore said. "It's David versus Goliath, and Goliath is cheating."

Families for Floyd County has nearly doubled its spending over last year – which organizers at the time called a “grassroots” effort of less than $10,000 – with tens of thousands of dollars poured into mailers, signs and other advertising, records show. In contrast, Preserve and Protect Floyd County spent just under $1,800, records show.

Moore's "David versus Goliath" analogy is apt, and while my previous comparison to the pre-Brexit mood in the United Kingdom still resonates ...

ON THE AVENUES: It’s our big fat Hibbardendum, and Jeff Gahan is carrying the superintendent across the threshold as Metro United Way tosses rice and One Southern Indiana steals all the liquor.

... the "leave" campaign across the pond was able to match the sheer weight of monied "remain" endorsements from society's best and brightest with invaluable assistance from the tabloid press.

There has been no such counter-balance during our most recent referendum push, with the possible exception of NA Confidential's persistent gutter journalism, because as Mayor Jeff Gahan once noted, we've "never done anything in a positive manner to help the city of New Albany.”

Hear hear! But enough about the wording on NAC's ceremonial plaque, to be nailed to the alley facing a deforested verge during the approaching end times, and back to the referendum itself.

Did it fail "by a narrow margin" last time out?

Not exactly. Here's an excerpt from WDRB's coverage in May, 2015.

New Albany Floyd County Schools tax referendum fails in Indiana primary

Voters in Floyd County rejected an $80 million plan to build two new schools and renovate three others in a special referendum on the Indiana primary ballot Tuesday. The measure was voted down with almost 55 percent of voters saying no. According to Floyd County's election returns, 5,524 ballots were cast, with 2,531 voting 'yes' and 2,993 voting 'no'.

Granted, it was a primary election, and vote totals were low (you don't think Bruce "Bags Packed" Hibbard gamed that slot on purpose, do you?), yet it's inaccurate to characterize a 55-45 tally as "narrow." That's landslide territory these days, in this sad-sack country.

As of Saturday, more than 18,000 early votes in the 2016 general election have been cast in Floyd County. Will far heavier voting during a presidential election season alter the percentages? Obviously, we have no public polling numbers on the referendum, and Nate Silver cannot participate in the discussion.

I've no way of handicapping the referendum vote, and won't try. The Green Mouse says Hibbard will be down the road in 2017, yea or nay. One local wag put it like this way:

Don't want to say the referendum is dead ... but it has gone to a farm in the country where it can run and play out the rest of its days.

I'm not so sure, but if "no" wins again, I'd advise all and sundry to take a look at the off-the-grid methodology of Preserve and Protect Floyd County, a virtually invisible PAC with almost no electronic presence, which still manages to inspire fear and loathing on the part of community pillars. I like medicine like that.

Waiter, I'll have some of what they're having, please.

Back to Brother Tom, in a track recorded during the early days of consolidation.

What's new, pussycat?

Nothing, and that's the problem.

See also:

Our big fat Hibbardendum (2): The more things stay the same, or our school bond referendum, 2016.

Our big fat Hibbardendum (3): City voters, take note, because just as in 2015, the NA-FC bond referendum is a "driving oriented, suburban school model."

ON THE AVENUES: It’s our big fat Hibbardendum, and Jeff Gahan is carrying the superintendent across the threshold as Metro United Way tosses rice and One Southern Indiana steals all the liquor.

Our big fat Hibbardendum (2): The more things stay the same, or our school bond referendum, 2016.

I was asked to "clarify" my stance on the school bond referendum in the wake of Friday's day-late column.

ON THE AVENUES: It’s our big fat Hibbardendum, and Jeff Gahan is carrying the superintendent across the threshold as Metro United Way tosses rice and One Southern Indiana steals all the liquor.

... as with the vote that preceded it, the stated terms of this referendum are fundamentally deceptive. The chicanery accompanying them is rampant and frankly odious. This exercise is about bright shiny objects, not the education of kids. This is not a community discussion about the future of education. It’s a top-down edict, and a call for the rabble to bow to their betters, form a line and stand in order.

Seeing as nothing much has changed since Bruce Hibbard's first might heave at the bond issue Wheel of Fortune in May of 2015 -- apart from the corporation's target number increasing to $87 million -- my words at the time should suffice. The following was originally published on May 4, 2015 as "On the school bond referendum," and I stand by it.

See also:

Our big fat Hibbardendum (1): Follow the PAC-besotted usual suspects' beak wetting in the $87 million schools referendum. 

Our big fat Hibbardendum (3): City voters, take note, because just as in 2015, the NA-FC bond referendum is a "driving oriented, suburban school model."

ON THE AVENUES: It’s our big fat Hibbardendum, and Jeff Gahan is carrying the superintendent across the threshold as Metro United Way tosses rice and One Southern Indiana steals all the liquor.

---

There were 106 posts at NA Confidential in April, 2015, and to my surprise, this one took the title of most viewed.

News release: "Greenville Concerned Citizens, Inc. (has) voted to oppose the upcoming $80 million school bond referendum."

Obviously, there exists a palpable level of interest in the school bond referendum, which impacts the entire county, but is appearing on the ballot during a city election cycle, during the often forgotten primary. This fact alone might provide a modicum of insight as to why some residents might be piqued, apart from the relative merits of the referendum's "for" and "against."

From the start, there has been a well-organized, prolific advocacy effort for a "yes" vote: Families for Floyd County. It's a well-named PAC, too; it's hard to imagine the converse, as in Families AGAINST Floyd County.

Meanwhile, by its own admission, the organized "vote no" push was slow in getting off the ground, and in spite of the press release here at the blog that performed so well, the News and Tribune didn't pay very much attention until after the Louisville Courier-Journal tipped things off.

Group rallies against $80M Floyd referendum, by Kirsten Clark

In the final weeks before an $80 million referendum for New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corporation appears on the ballot, a group of concerned citizens has been rallying against it, calling some of the proposed construction it would fund "completely unnecessary" and the school administration's actions "sneaky."

Shortly thereafter, N and T revealed the counter-punch.

Greenville group may have illegal sign campaign, by Jerod Clapp

... Pete Palmer, a local attorney and president of Families for Floyd County — a PAC encouraging voters to favor the referendum — said he may file a formal complaint against Greenville Concerned Citizens.

“I am exploring the issue because I think the manner in which they have approached this is unfair,” Palmer said. “To the extent I consider it to be a violation of Indiana election law, I consider it to be an appropriate remedy.”

Speaking only for myself, I find it very disappointing that the well-heeled Families for Floyd County would seek intimidation via technicality. The pro-bond PAC has been ubiquitous in presenting its case in favor of the school bond issue.

Need it crush dissenting viewpoints to succeed?

---

There simply isn't space here to recap the many instructive conversations taking place recently on Facebook about the school bond issue. Thanks to all who have taken part. To me, perhaps the best short summary remains Jeff G's Fb post several weeks back, which is clear and economical in explaining the case against.

The school referendum on the primary ballot in Floyd County attempts to refute both science and basic economics, assuring the school corporation continues on the wholly unsustainable path started with closing smaller, walkable, neighborhood schools. Proponents of the referendum have continually attempted to separate the school closings from the referendum but both are part of the exact same plan-- a reliance on fewer, larger, driving-oriented school campuses. This is a school corporation that thinks nothing of purchasing and demolishing hundred-year-old housing to build more parking lots. All the pro-kids, pro-community, pro-environment arguments made in response to the proposed closings are still true and applicable. This referendum just insures that they won't ever be taken seriously until we reach genuine crisis stage, something that will occur sooner if the referendum passes. We can deal with reality now as a part of an improved referendum or we can stick our heads in the sand with this one and continue pretending as though a misguided 60s era model will work ad infinitum. Looking forward rather than backward requires voting NO.

Consequently, there exist two fundamental considerations pertaining to the "yea or nay" thought process as it exists in my own interior world.

First, while I believe we always should do things "for the kids," which is to say, "for the future," parsing the equation and defining the meaning of "things" is by no means simple, and the process lends itself to deployment as an emotional argument -- which I view proponents as having done in this instance. What must we do for the kids? Build better buildings. Why? Because better buildings lead to better education. Are there alternatives? Not really -- after all, it's for the kids. The argument is emotional, and circular.

Second, the bond proposal cannot be divorced from its progenitor. The NA-FC school corporation is the very essence of 800-lb gorilla, absorbing huge amounts of money and sucking the air out of rooms from Silver Creek to the Harrison County line, and yet existing forever as an autonomous, extra-governmental entity. There is little or no connectivity between school corporation leadership and the community; if the city resolves to pour money into neighborhood revitalization, you can almost bet your paycheck that the neighborhood school located there is next to be shuttered, with the decision-making process customarily based on a staggering degree of non-transparency, and absent communication with elected officials.

As recently as mid-April, during the run-up to the referendum, and almost as though school corporation administrators were bound and determined to prove once and for all how utterly tone deaf to criticism they can be, the upper echelon reacted harshly and openly to suggestions that it might do more to inform the public about agenda items at school board meetings:

“We wrote to you so you could make good decisions,” (deputy superintendent Brad) Snyder said. “We didn’t write to 70,000 people. We didn’t write to people who have axes to grind or issues against us. If we start writing that way, our vernacular, our language will probably shift to nouns and verbs. Our relationships will change and we will be required to do less work.”

Some will say that voting "no" as a form of protest, as I have done, is improper, seeing as it places children in the position of suffering collateral damage. I cannot entirely dismiss this objection. There are opportunity costs to all decisions, and we rely on our minds and consciences to help in the process of weighing them. But in the end, if we're genuinely serious about long-term futures, then there must be an open, principled break with unhelpful policies and behaviors from the past.

Education, community, sustainability, connectivity ... it's a minefield. The school bond referendum was a tough call for me. I merely hope that we can agree to disagree.

Snyder screws up and mentions Hibbard's name. That'll cost 'em 1%.

Earlier: The NA-FC school corporation's latest bond referendum debuts ... but if Trump wins, aren't we all moving to Canada anyway?

Hospital sale meetings are held in secret. Street reversion meetings are held in secret. The school corporation's community meetings ... but of course, there might be classified notices in the print edition.

MC wrote:

I probably just missed any notices but did you all see public notices about the community meetings held by the school system, according to the News and Tribune?

BG answered:

No, I didn't. It's especially funny seeing Snyder not explain what they supposedly explained at those gatherings. The new video doesn't explain anything, either. A lot has changed. They've learned. We just don't know how or what.

The newspaper took a break from Clark County coverage to proffer this explanation. It's nice to see that the concept of "pep rally" still exists in our area's institutions of learning.

NA-FC referendum shows push and pull; Groups set to support, oppose, by Jerod Clapp (Clark County News Source)

Gearing up for round two on a referendum, the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. has held community meetings to try to engage supporters.

Brad Snyder, deputy superintendent, said it's held some community meetings at the district's Education Support Center on Grant Line Road and has seen some growth in participation.

"Dr. [Bruce] Hibbard, [superintendent] has a goal of trying to get 100 people there," Snyder said. "We kind of started with 20, then it went to 30 or 40. At our last meeting, we probably had 50 people there. The energy and the enthusiasm has clearly grown. We’ve got a couple more set up, but we’re headed in the right direction."

The NA-FC school corporation's latest bond referendum debuts ... but if Trump wins, aren't we all moving to Canada anyway?

Here's the video.

Here's the newspaper's coverage. At least the school corporation finally realized that so much as mentioning the superintendent's name is the kiss of death to effective PR.

New Albany-Floyd County Schools announces new referendum; New project comes in at $87 million, by Jerod Clapp (Occasionally New Albany)

NEW ALBANY — Going bigger than last time around, the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. formally announced its plan for a referendum on the November ballot.

On Wednesday, the district put a video on social media detailing the new proposal. This time, the project adds $7 million to the price tag, putting it at about $87 million. Brad Snyder, deputy superintendent, said part of the reason is to make the issue of property tax change easier to understand.

Here are a few NAC posts from our last go-around in the the spring of 2015.

NA-FC referendum: "A driving oriented, suburban school model."

News release: "Greenville Concerned Citizens, Inc. (has) voted to oppose the upcoming $80 million school bond referendum."

On the school bond referendum.

NA-FC schools referendum is defeated.

Jeffie bar the door: Redevelopment don't need no stinking TIF input from schools.

Superintendent Hibbard: "I think we need professional help."

Earth to (Hibbard): One significant reason the referendum lost is that many voters understood the question quite well, but are terminally mistrustful of current management to implement the proposed bond. Sorry, but that's as simple as it gets. You mean to tell me no one mentioned this possibility during the (planning) retreat?

"Newspaper poll results indicate "slight" trend against Hibbard pay raise." (2012)

Superintendent Hibbard: "I think we need professional help."

Okay, that was just a bit gratuitous.

Here's the key quote for me.

“People had different reasons why we lost,” (Bruce) Hibbard said. “People thought it was apathy, but people also didn’t think we did a very good job of getting the word out about the question. People would go and read the question not knowing that 23 cents was falling off [the rate thanks to an expiring bond] and they were getting 20 [back on].

Earth to superintendent: One significant reason the referendum lost is that many voters understood the question quite well, but are terminally mistrustful of current management to implement the proposed bond.

Sorry, but that's as simple as it gets. You mean to tell me no one mentioned this possibility during the retreat?

(Rolls eyes, cues Yes Men, strikes up the band)

NA-FC referendum may get another shot, by Jerod Clapp (N and T)

It didn’t pass last time around, but the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. might give a referendum another shot in 2016.

This time, they might hire some help.

At the board’s retreat at Wooded Glen in Henryville last weekend, administrators and board members discussed the possibility of hiring a political consultant to advise them on how to encourage voters to approve the measure.

Superintendent Bruce Hibbard said Brad Snyder, deputy superintendent, did what he knew to do with the campaign, but an outside company could hone their message to the county.

“We weren’t built to be politicians — we’re educators and I think we need professional help,” Hibbard said Saturday. “One of the things a professional will do is they’ll canvass our community.”

On the school bond referendum.

There were 106 posts at NA Confidential in April, and to my surprise, this one took the title of most viewed.

News release: "Greenville Concerned Citizens, Inc. (has) voted to oppose the upcoming $80 million school bond referendum."

Obviously, there exists a palpable level of interest in the school bond referendum, which impacts the entire county, but is appearing on the ballot during a city election cycle, during the often forgotten primary. This fact alone might provide a modicum of insight as to why some residents might be piqued, apart from the relative merits of the referendum's "for" and "against."

From the start, there has been a well-organized, prolific advocacy effort for a "yes" vote: Families for Floyd County. It's a well-named PAC, too; it's hard to imagine the converse, as in Families AGAINST Floyd County.

Meanwhile, by its own admission, the organized "vote no" push was slow in getting off the ground, and in spite of the press release here at the blog that performed so well, the News and Tribune didn't pay very much attention until after the Louisville Courier-Journal tipped things off.

Group rallies against $80M Floyd referendum, by Kirsten Clark

In the final weeks before an $80 million referendum for New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corporation appears on the ballot, a group of concerned citizens has been rallying against it, calling some of the proposed construction it would fund "completely unnecessary" and the school administration's actions "sneaky."

Shortly thereafter, N and T revealed the counter-punch.

Greenville group may have illegal sign campaign, by Jerod Clapp

... Pete Palmer, a local attorney and president of Families for Floyd County — a PAC encouraging voters to favor the referendum — said he may file a formal complaint against Greenville Concerned Citizens.

“I am exploring the issue because I think the manner in which they have approached this is unfair,” Palmer said. “To the extent I consider it to be a violation of Indiana election law, I consider it to be an appropriate remedy.”

Speaking only for myself, I find it very disappointing that the well-heeled Families for Floyd County would seek intimidation via technicality. The pro-bond PAC has been ubiquitous in presenting its case in favor of the school bond issue.

Need it crush dissenting viewpoints to succeed?

---

There simply isn't space here to recap the many instructive conversations taking place recently on Facebook about the school bond issue. Thanks to all who have taken part. To me, perhaps the best short summary remains Jeff G's Fb post several weeks back, which is clear and economical in explaining the case against.

The school referendum on the primary ballot in Floyd County attempts to refute both science and basic economics, assuring the school corporation continues on the wholly unsustainable path started with closing smaller, walkable, neighborhood schools. Proponents of the referendum have continually attempted to separate the school closings from the referendum but both are part of the exact same plan-- a reliance on fewer, larger, driving-oriented school campuses. This is a school corporation that thinks nothing of purchasing and demolishing hundred-year-old housing to build more parking lots. All the pro-kids, pro-community, pro-environment arguments made in response to the proposed closings are still true and applicable. This referendum just insures that they won't ever be taken seriously until we reach genuine crisis stage, something that will occur sooner if the referendum passes. We can deal with reality now as a part of an improved referendum or we can stick our heads in the sand with this one and continue pretending as though a misguided 60s era model will work ad infinitum. Looking forward rather than backward requires voting NO.

Consequently, there exist two fundamental considerations pertaining to the "yea or nay" thought process as it exists in my own interior world.

First, while I believe we always should do things "for the kids," which is to say, "for the future," parsing the equation and defining the meaning of "things" is by no means simple, and the process lends itself to deployment as an emotional argument -- which I view proponents as having done in this instance. What must we do for the kids? Build better buildings. Why? Because better buildings lead to better education. Are there alternatives? Not really -- after all, it's for the kids. The argument is emotional, and circular.

Second, the bond proposal cannot be divorced from its progenitor. The NA-FC school corporation is the very essence of 800-lb gorilla, absorbing huge amounts of money and sucking the air out of rooms from Silver Creek to the Harrison County line, and yet existing forever as an autonomous, extra-governmental entity. There is little or no connectivity between school corporation leadership and the community; if the city resolves to pour money into neighborhood revitalization, you can almost bet your paycheck that the neighborhood school located there is next to be shuttered, with the decision-making process customarily based on a staggering degree of non-transparency, and absent communication with elected officials.

As recently as mid-April, during the run-up to the referendum, and almost as though school corporation administrators were bound and determined to prove once and for all how utterly tone deaf to criticism they can be, the upper echelon reacted harshly and openly to suggestions that it might do more to inform the public about agenda items at school board meetings:

“We wrote to you so you could make good decisions,” (deputy superintendent Brad) Snyder said. “We didn’t write to 70,000 people. We didn’t write to people who have axes to grind or issues against us. If we start writing that way, our vernacular, our language will probably shift to nouns and verbs. Our relationships will change and we will be required to do less work.”

Some will say that voting "no" as a form of protest, as I have done, is improper, seeing as it places children in the position of suffering collateral damage. I cannot entirely dismiss this objection. There are opportunity costs to all decisions, and we rely on our minds and consciences to help in the process of weighing them. But in the end, if we're genuinely serious about long-term futures, then there must be an open, principled break with unhelpful policies and behaviors from the past.

Education, community, sustainability, connectivity ... it's a minefield. The school bond referendum was a tough call for me. I merely hope that we can agree to disagree.

Gahan AWOL as city council discusses the school referendum, voting machines and precinct boundaries.

Pillsbury's on ice, so the mayor has been returned to his cryogenic storage tube.

As so often is the case, with nothing "official" on the agenda, last evening's council klatch was transformed into Potpourri for a few million, Alex.

Downtown elementary schools.

(What are things we close so other schools become crowded and require fresh bond issues to reconstruct?)

Voting machines.

(What are items the city must buy because Mark Seabrook prevents the county from doing so?)

Precinct boundaries.

(What are ever-shifting, amorphous lines kept vague on Mark Seabrook's orders?)

And so on, and so forth, and forever we drift toward Eastridgeocracy, or government by dump truck-wielding wealth extractors.

Read all about it, courtesy of Daniel Suddeath, who in mid-meeting tweeted this:

Three of four mayoral candidates at tonight's New Albany council meeting. We're just missing the incumbent.

That's what I'm saying.

A primary concern in New Albany: Voting issues, school referendum on council’s mind ahead of May election, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

NEW ALBANY — One item of business fed off the other Monday, as the New Albany City Council considered several topics related to the upcoming May 5 primary.

Information about the Pillsbury "business retention and factory-modernization package."

Two morsels for thought as we await the outcome.

$7 million works out to $3,500 per worker, per year, for five years (based on 400 employees at Pillsbury and Sonoco). From Charlie White's C-J coverage:

General Mills purchased Pillsbury in summer of 2000 from British food company Diageo for $10.5 billion. In fiscal year 2014, General Mills had global net sales of $19.2 billion.

Indiana economic development officials provided General Mills more than $100,000 in incentives in the last 10 years to ensure kept its workforce of about 480. But over the last three to four years, the company shifted manufacturing of some product lines to its more modern operation in Murfreesboro, Tenn., plant. The food giant spent $100 million expanding there four years ago.

Second, there is no reference to the concurrent implications of negotiations between General Mills and the union, as mentioned previously. Is our $7 million in proposed incentives keeping pay as it is, or does it accompany concessions from the union?

In trying to educate myself about these issues, I've been wondering if there's a Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union local in Murfreesboro. If there is, I can't find on-line references to it.

Readers, do you know?

Worth the dough? New Albany may offer $7 million to keep Pillsbury Plant, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

NEW ALBANY — Last week, several New Albany City Council members pledged to diligently work on solutions to keep the General Mills plant open.

On Tuesday, the council will be asked to give its blessing for a $7 million bond package Mayor Jeff Gahan’s administration hopes will stave off the closure, which General Mills announced Jan. 8 could happen within 18 months ...

 ... "We have assembled a business retention and factory-modernization package for our friends at General Mills to consider,” Gahan stated in a news release issued Friday afternoon.

“Our goal is to keep the New Albany facility in continuous operation for as long as possible.”

Gahan's plan for keep Pillsbury: A $7 million bond issue.

Props to the News and Tribune's Daniel Suddeath, who is tweeting about the city's offer to General Mills.

New Albany City Council to consider $7 million bond package Tuesday to update Pillsbury Plant in hopes of keeping facility open.

The bond incentive resolution for General Mills deal states the Pillsbury plant in New Albany would have to stay open a min. of 5 years.

If resolution approved, New Albany Redevelopment Commission and NA Council would have to take additional votes, same as any bond issue.

According to city, Pillsbury plant paid $661k in property taxes in 2014 and $7 million over last decade.

The financing plan would be a mix of tax-increment financing and possibly EDIT money, per David Duggins, city economic development director.