Vote no
I encourage all residents to vote no to the referendum. We’ve lost too much to these “leaders.” Don’t throw good money after bad. They’ve had three years with this administration to turn things around, but choose to bring back money-losing activities while losing courses that help kids. Get new administration or vote no.
Dilapidated shack
When are they going to remove that dilapidated shack along the west shore of North Long Lake. It’s been laying there for 30 years?
Deal with it
I chatted with a friend whose husband is a doctor. I commented how difficult it must be to have your husband called away at all hours. Her comment, “You know it when you go into this field.” Kind of like when you buy a cabin and know you are going to pay non-homesteaded taxes. Yes, some tax dollars go to educate our future adults. Think about it. No surprise. Deal with it, cabin owners. You may be paying to educate a doctor that may operate on you one day.
Vox Pop on Page 1?
Why don’t you take and put Vox Pop on the front page along with Open Forum? Those are important things to the Brainerd people. Some of the stuff you have on the front page is not important news to the people. And also you could put the obituaries on there. Years ago, all this stuff used to be put on the front page of papers. I can’t stress this enough. You have a good paper but please print the stuff where people can see it and read it.
Money for bullets?
Every Legion and VFW run a business that usually includes a bar, food, raffles, Bingo, etc. It’s hard to believe they don’t make enough money to buy bullets for funerals without needing extra money from the state.
We don’t think twice
The recent discussion as to whether or not seasonal recreational property tax owners should pay for local school levies puzzles me because none of us think twice about traveling to cities that we know have local taxes for lodging over and above state taxes and we still feel when we go to that city, we need to pay that city’s tax and no one really squabbles about it. Yet, seasonal recreational property owners who benefit from the educated and skilled work force in our area don’t see the need to pay their share of the school district operating expenses.
No sacrifices? No vote.
Want my vote for the Brainerd school referendum? Tell me, will administration take a salary reduction? What about all union employees, teachers? If every school district employee accepted a 10 percent pay cut, it would save about $5 million dollars annually and every current employee could remain employed. If no answers or no sacrifices, I vote no.
Eliminate program
I see the Thirty Lakes Watershed District proposed 2012 budget is at $232,900 and it is a complete waste of taxpayer money. It is so redundant with all of the other services that the taxpayers are paying for already in the county and it has been a private cash cow for years. How about if we just eliminate this wasteful program?
Vox Pop, voice of the people, publishes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Submissions are limited to 100 words. To phone in a comment, call (218) 855-5888 and leave a message. To e-mail a comment, write to voxpop@brainerddispatch.com. Comments, which must meet the newspaper’s standards of fairness and good taste, may be edited for clarity, length and libel.
Comments (22)
Add commentVoting no?
To the one who wants all school employees to take a cut, can you guarantee that if any group working for the school district takes a cut in pay that it will pass? I don't think anyone can guarantee that. So there's your answer, I expect a yes vote from you as you said in your vox pop call.
To the first respondent - cuts were made because the last referendum failed. Classes and activities went away. There was no money to pay for them. Changing administrators doesn't alter what happened in the past. What's done is done. I don't know what you consider turning things around, but test scores are up
Education funding doesn't
Education funding doesn't belong on property taxes.
It belongs in the general fund.
Can you be specific?
I'm interested in hearing how you'd do it, fishhead. Lottery money? Higher sales tax? Show what you're thinking.
"Educated and skilled work force
in our area." Really? Where are these people? Go into almost any store or restaurant, and I assure you, they are neither very educated or skilled.
Careful Zachnos, or Eyolf the
Careful Zachnos, or Eyolf the Omnipotent will jump on here and slam you for asking a question and not providing original ideas to correct the problems of the world.
"Eyolf the Omnipotent"
LOL!!! I was thinking more along the lines of Impotent!
FISH!! Wow
Education funding doesn't belong on property taxes.
It belongs in the general fund.
Something we can agree on!!! Its the first sign of the apocalypse!!! lol
Republicans don't have an education funding plan that works
There are many ways to fund education. After the MN Miracle, leaders from both parties in our state decided that a general state tax funding plan with the same amount of tax money going to a student in Edina or Pillager was the way to go.
You see, their thought was that every child in the state should be provided with baseline finances to educate them. Rich or poor, town full of millionaires or full of those barely scraping by--same funding to all of them.
They knew that the ability and willingness of local citizens to pay for their childs basic education would vary across the state, and didn't want to see the large disparity that would exist between the Edina and Pillager kid if some baseline/common funding system was not in place.
The legislature--almost exclusively due to Republican actions--have been whittling away at this for a number of year now, but have NOT done anything to maintain the baseline equity that our wiser leaders of the past knew was necessary.
Why not? The base for the republican party is not in small town rural MN--it's in the rich suburbs of the Twin Cities and affluent towns like Rochester. Those towns can and do fund their students baseline needs--and more--with local taxes. They have a rich tax base and they routinely vote for levies which provide additional $$ for the kids in their districts.
We need to firmly ask republicans why they are continuing to erode the state education funding plan--and what they intend to do to replace it.
I agree with you PR
I agree with you PR; it seems like the most logical conclusion is that "someone" wants to create a class war. We have heard some people say for years that it was Democrats and liberals that would spark such a war; why would conservatives want to give them the reason and the fuel?
Intelligient poeple will channel their energies in some way or another...it might be in service of the greater society or it might be in service of something not so congenial. That is reason enough to try to steer the population. Pillager is a great place to begin that discussion as it was about 25 years ago that a certain seasonal resident attempted to destroy the school district:
Rich
If you really want to see "uneducated and unskilled" workers, go to Texas and other Southern states, and then you will understand how Minnesota shines compared to them. Wish it weren't true, but it is.
What? Land of "Skerry Perry"
Say it isn't so.
I agree that funding for
I agree that funding for schools should not be the home owners problem. Every time the schools need more money they look to the property owners to be the saving grace. Enough is enough!!!
lakelander
You have obviously never been to the South and I am going to assume you get all your information from the internet. While there are many places in the South that are lagging behind the rest of the country, to paint such a broad stroke over an entire area is foolish at best. The South is one of the biggest areas of population growth, with more people every year moving in that direction. If you are getting your numbers from just "polls", you might want to take a trip and open your eyes. The problem I see with many who post here is you are all so blinded by "party lines" that you fail to see the picture as a whole. And yes it is the problem of the state of Minnesota to fund schools. They have failed that test for a number of years and unfortunately the school districts have to turn to the districts in which they live. Instead of taxing the home owners, I wish they would raise sales tax, that way they would impact everyone. I wonder how much they could raise if they raised it to 9% instead of 7.375%?
Sales and property taxes both regressive....
Sales taxes and property taxes hit people who have a harder time affording them much harder than they do the uber-rich. The equitable way to fund education was the system we had--coming primarily from income taxes.
And regarding south versus north--I have a number of relatives and friends who are or were in the military. Every one of them tried as hard as they could to move north when they were raising kids. For a good reason--well known there was a huge quality of education difference.
true, rich and rino
You do know what they say about "assume", rich?
There are hopeful pockets like Austin, TX, and I have visited some pretty places in the south. But I still would place MN education above most of those states and cities in the south. Lots of private schools in the south that maybe are comparable to us, but public education is challenged there.
Sales tax increase is fine with me. It is one place people can save by not consuming so much. Today I opened a bar of soap that said "made in China!" We need to make soap here! And we need to print on products MADE IN THE USA in large print.
I agree, RINO, with the experience of other military families whose children were critically behind in school when they moved back to MN and other northern states. And it isn't solely immigrants, it is natives whose language skills are lagging behind. Atlanta is probably just one example of a failure in schools. And I am hoping that the clean-up from Hurricane Irene doesn't replicate the graft and fraud we saw after Katrina. And we won't see New Englanders migrating either.
Schools saving money?
Funny that they say they are "saving" money because you should see the nice student handbook they send home with all the kids at one elementary school. It is more like a book, 18 pgs not including the very nice front with a big colored photo. Why not have everything on the net and if the family needs then send home a printed one. Why would you send two or three to the same house (kids in all grades get one), why not see who has the same house and limit it to one per house? Do all the elementary schools get one? How much money was spent printing these things? How much time and money was spent designing it? All the papers they send home is just crazy! Then they have the nerve to tell my 2nd grader that they are poor! You haven't seen poor yet! I can say one good thing about 181, they are trying to get better with the lunches. They seem to be doing more whole grains. They still have a long way to go.
seriously?
You think everyone has internet at home?
how much flack would ISD 181 have taken if they only sent this info out on-line?
I don't think tha was an option to not get the information to everyone.
Society has not moved beyond printed instructions or manuals. Maybe some day.
Lots of parents never even unpack their kids back pack from what I am hearing. Sad.
"Lots of parents never even
"Lots of parents never even unpack their kids back pack from what I am hearing. Sad."
Sad...yes, very sad indeed.
Kids should be taught it is the parents jobs to do this for them. And if they find a quiz or something that the child got a C on, they should give them a trophy.
OR
Maybe the parents can ask "let me see what you have from school?" "Do you have any homework?" " Well, why don't you go see if you can finish it before dinner." "Let me know if you have any questions."
snowda
Read barco's post again, and then apologize!
Thank you dean!
Snowda you don't need to get your undies in a bunch by not reading a full comment. How much money is wasted? At our house we do unpack the back packs because I am a parent that cares. I can't control that some parents aren't parents at all. Because of foolish parents they put these "safe guards" in place and we end up with over bearing laws, wasted money and limited rights. I feel like it is a form of enabling the foolish.