MPS Committee Raises Taxes to the Max
Remember that they increased taxes 9% last year.
Milwaukee School Board members voted 5-4 on Tuesday to raise the property tax to the limit set by state law, a move supported by dozens of speakers who opposed the possibility of more cuts to district classrooms.
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But rather than increase taxes by 13.6% as Andrekopoulos proposed, board members Terry Falk, Michael Bonds, Jennifer Morales, Tim Peterson and Peter Blewett voted to tax to the revenue limit, an increase of 14.6% over last year, and to use the additional $2.5 million in tax revenue for plans including expanding staffing in early childhood classrooms, expanding drivers education and paying for all juniors to take the ACT.
You know whose fault this is? I’ll give you a hint:
Nearly all speakers favored a tax increase steeper than what Andrekopoulos had suggested — a $143 increase for the owner of a home valued at $150,000, rather than a $130 increase over last year’s taxes.
You got it. This is the fault of the citizens of Milwaukee who didn’t show up and tell the board members that they don’t want a double-digit tax increase. Let’s hope that they show up for the full board meeting.
Owen - do you think it’s going to make a difference if people show up?
I plan on going…but the last time the response was overwhelmingly against a tax increase…they did it anyway.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 0707 hrs
I stopped going to school board meetings a long time ago. They just do what they want anyway.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 0713 hrs
The problem is, no matter if it’s Milwaukee or Pumpkinville, proponents of tax increases always show up in mass. They are organized through the local teachers union, who are ordered by the state teacher union to organize and jam-pack such board meetings. The deck is always stacked against the opponents.
The irony is that all of these people - most of whom are connected to the school in some way - are the ones who complain about low wages. But if they advocate for the tax increase, then they are working for less money in their pocket.
But I would agree with the earlier posts: most school boards that propose tax increases could give a rip about who shows up and who does not. They’re going to do it anyhow and the public hearings are nothing more than “cover” for their tax hikes.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 0905 hrs
Look. It can’t be any easier to undertand than this.
The citizens of Milwaukee elect these people. Nobody is holding a gun to their head. The teacher’s union can put money toward the races but each member only has one vote.
FACT: The people of Milwaukee just don’t care. It’s that simple. If a handful of citizens come to a meeting to complain, they Board can say it is a small minority. If a large group shows up to protest, they can rightfully say, “Well, vote us out if we are out of touch.”
Because Owen, in West Bend, thinks this is a travesty doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.
You can make all the accounting and policy changes you want. If the core is rotten the apple will rot. Unless there is a tax revolution (unlikely) then suck it up.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 0912 hrs
Hmmmm…
1 less really good cigar a year in exchange for keeping the
status quo in education spending?I can live with that….
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 0937 hrs
Gee, and Milwaukee just can’t seem to figure out why the population decreases every year. Oh yeah..cuz we don’t have a choo choo.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 0940 hrs
Please don’t lump all of us Milwaukee residents together. I DO care about these ridiculous tax increases and lack of effort to reduce costs…and I DO vote against these elected officials that continue to raise taxes. I often go to meetings and voice my objections, send emails, make phone calls, write letters to the editor…whatever I can. But it is like a drop in the ocean.
KB…I don’t smoke cigars, but that must be a REALLY good cigar to cost $143.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 1003 hrs
KB, if you think simply pumping more money into MPS will solve their problems, you’re delusional.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 1015 hrs
Nice, the class warfare card has been played. So let’s say I do wish to buy a $143 cigar. That is my choice to do so. But if some government entity, like the school district, decides that they’re going to take that right away from me, then I have a problem with that.
This is the problem with you free-spending, tax to the max, liberals. First, you believe people are “too wealthy”. And second, once you have deemed someone “too wealthy”, you believe it is the government’s duty to spread the wealth around. Just ask Joe the Plumber about that.
What most of you liberals don’t understand is that ‘money’ is ‘property’. It’s not about what I can or can not buy, but rather what I have a right to own. When the government draws the line of how much is too much, I have a big problem with that. Individuals should have the freedom to decide their own personal level of success - not the government.
Smoke ‘em if you get ‘em.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 1107 hrs
Well, Pelican Pants the elected representative governement entity called MPS, just took that right away from you. You are officially in the minority.
I hope you like Dutch Masters. Instead of buying a good cigar you may want to donate money to someone you can support who is running for school board against this elected kabal.
Question for Milwaukee residents: How may of these board members run unopposed?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 1148 hrs
Fortunately, I am not a Milwaukee resident. Unfortunately, I am a Madison resident. My comment was directed more to the issue on the aggregate, rather than selecting one entity such as MPS. I’ve got enough problems with the Madison School Board as it is, thank you very much.
That being said, most people who run for local school boards, at least in the city of Madison, are the same type of people that either a. have worked for the school district; or b. have no problem with raising everyones’ property tax. They firmly believe in the institution of government and its responsibility to take care of people from cradle to grave, regardless of the cost to taxpayers.
So in this far-left, lunancy that is the city of Madison, what chance does a conservative Republican such as myself even have against the “progressive” political machine that is Madison? Or Dane County, for that matter?
Unopposed or not, the chances of that are slim and none, and slim went on vacation a long time ago.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 1322 hrs
True enough P.P. but 100 organized people could do some serious change in Madison if they had some funding. The problem is who wants to be the Christian in the Lion’s Den?
People whine about paying an extra $150 in taxes but keep their wallets zipped up when it comes to supporting any advocate to slow the bleeding.
Tighter still is the sphincter of conservatives who won’t get off their butts and out from behind their keyboard and invest their time to turn things around.
“Blogs are the opiate of the conservatives.” Liberals are out in the street, or going to meetings, and getting their way.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 1433 hrs
John Galt (nice name, I love Atlas Shrugged and we may be headed in the direction that we have to become a society of John Galts, but that’s another topic) raises some interesting points.
First, no matter what we who live outside of Milwaukee think, it doesn’t affect Milwaukee. The population of Milwaukee for the most part consists of three groups: the PIGs (People In Government), those too poor to leave, and the sponges who live off the income transfers. This is the type of government Milwaukee and Milwaukee County want. That won’t keep me from commenting on the stupidity, however.
Look at the pension scandal. Although several county board members were recalled, some weren’t, and even the “reformers” have gone native and become addicted to taxpayers’ hard-earned income. It’s like the so-called revolution never happened.
School board members, country board members and common council members run unopposed or with token opposition. Same with judges. It’s become as corrupt and mismanaged as Chicago. Any time there is a credible challenger to an establishment figure, you can count on that person getting a rectal exam like no other, the establishment practicing the politics of personal destruction to make sure no one challenges the power structure and lives to tell the tale.
Posted by Peter on October 22, 2008 at 1606 hrs
Pelican Pants,
They are organized through the local teachers union, who are ordered by the state teacher union to organize and jam-pack such board meetings. The deck is always stacked against the opponents.
This is just sour grapes, and its wrong. I am a regular, local union guy, and have been for about ten years now. I have never been, nor have I ever heard of any other local being, ordered by the state teachers union to do anything.
If anything the ordering goes the other way around. Locals, through the Representative Assembly, are usually the ones ordering the state union around. Locals might also solicit help up the ladder of the union organization, and may or may not get it from the regional or state offices. But I have never had WEAC tell me what to do as a local/regional union representative.
Peter,
The population of Milwaukee for the most part consists of three groups: the PIGs (People In Government), those too poor to leave, and the sponges who live off the income transfers. This is the type of government Milwaukee and Milwaukee County want. That won’t keep me from commenting on the stupidity, however.
Fine, fire away, that kind of arrogance and bigotry speak for themselves.
Posted by Mike on October 22, 2008 at 1738 hrs
pdiggy, AKA Peter
I thought that you had disavowed your status as part of our little corner of the world and become a man without a country.
I really liked hearing that.
You haven’t recanted have you?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 22, 2008 at 1810 hrs
Peter: I would contentd there is a much larger group in Milwaukee-the apathetic. Some are apathetic because they work hard and are too busy to keep on top of school/tax issues. Some don’t work at all and are apathetic about that too.
Mike is probably right too, as there are plenty of folks who just take whatever the school district says at face value. Those are the ones who are the most likely to attend meetings. I don’t think there is a big effort to get bodies into a meeting.
I also know there are those who attend board meetings to complain, and they complain about everything from the lunch program to whatever. They show up at these meetings too and are not taken too seriously because they are constant complainers and usually get their facts wrong.
You also have self proclaimed conservatives who attend, don’t say anything and then blog about how the system is weighted against them. That is who attends these meetings-if anyone attends.
The issue here is not who attends or doesn’t attend these meetings. It is about who is elected and who they actually listen to or respect. They are a direct reflection of the community. Mike, that is not meant as an insult unless you are offended by the actions of the MPS board.
Watch, Hardin will be re-elected. That should explain everything. Why expend the emotional capital on a lost cause? You get the government you deserve.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 23, 2008 at 0630 hrs
KB…let them buy their cigars. With all the new ordinances being passed around the country, they won’t be able to smoke them anywhere but at home. And even that may be in jeopardy.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 23, 2008 at 0952 hrs
Our motto at work is “you can’t fix stupid,” While not a resident of that Distict, thank you Lord, stupidity and the total dysfunctional predisposition of School Boards to spend beyond reasonable limits, I am at my whits limit, meager as they may be, to understand the constant pumping of hard-won tax dollars into failing School Disticts.
This same notion of Fiscal Responsiblilty must resound in Government, to a lesserr or growing extent. Thanks and back to my own battles in Green Bay.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 23, 2008 at 2027 hrs
I want no part of your country. You can have it.
Posted by Peter on October 23, 2008 at 2350 hrs
A neutron bomb couldn’t clean up the upholster port-a-john that is Milwaukee.
Posted by Peter on October 23, 2008 at 2350 hrs
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