For the seven members of the School Board who met tonight to buy up some more “property” (they never call them houses) there were seven of us from Let Duluth Vote. Brenda gave a masterful presentation which I’ve asked her to forward to me because I’d like to publish it.
I pointed out that after tonight’s $111 million additional borrowing there was a little over $200 million of $407 yet to be levied. (I count interest) When I also said that the Board Chair had implied that the fall operational levy would be needed to complete the Red Plan’s financing Chair Nilsen vigorously shook her head “no.”
When Gary Glass began asking questions about the future finances he also piped up about the fall levy. When he too suggested that there was more taxing to come Chair Nilsen broke in and corrected him saying that all of the borrowing was over with and that was the end of the tax increases. The District’s bond counsel corrected her and agreed with Gary that in 2011 another $90 million is scheduled to be raised.
I don’t know if any of the Board members have the foggiest idea what they are doing but after Gary commented that he was never happy to see more public borrowing Nilsen gladly changed the subject from her very public demonstration of cluelessness about the financial impact of the Red Plan. It had been announced by the Bond counsel that they had carved another $8 million off of the interest payments for the borrowing. Nilsen then made fun of Gary for not being thrilled about getting a better interest rate. I took this to mean she was desperate to change the subject from her misunderstanding of the Red Plan’s impact.
And she’s the Board Chair!
