What the City Council giveth they can taketh away September 10, 2016 The banner headline in yesterday’s DNT trumpeted the City’s brave attempt at transparency by replacing “street fees” from Duluth utility bills with honest to… Continue Reading
The Commodore is right again August 5, 2015 As Claudia and I sat at Valentini’s having breakfast this morning we saw one of the sailboats from the Trans Superior Race gliding into… Continue Reading
Do ISD 709’s auditors believe it was wise to transfer ten million local levy dollars from the classroom … December 9, 2014 and spend it instead on debt repayment? No they don’t. They have no opinion on that question. Like good auditors they only evaluated whether… Continue Reading
My 22 minute message July 9, 2014 Once again I woke up too early this morning this time a little stiff and achy from a lumpy pillow. As I lay hoping… Continue Reading
$200 million! May 29, 2014 I was a little taken aback reading a March news story about a Tribal panel dismissing complaints against Fond du Lac’s leadership. It wasn’t… Continue Reading
Rockridge January 30, 2014 Darn it. I’m way to garrulous for my own good. I spent 2 hours and 40 minutes talking with seven folks who are concerned… Continue Reading
The Tuesday Trib’s trio… October 1, 2013 …of stories pertinent to the levy: The first is about the retirement of Terry Matson. The eye popping figure is this. When he began… Continue Reading
I endorse this editorial September 9, 2013 As one of the nine School Board members who created and or protected the “ten percent reserve” which ended up at about $23 million… Continue Reading
Gaming the system November 22, 2011 The ever growing likelyhood of losing Casino money is really big and unpleasant news for Duluth taxpayers. According to this story Duluth was only… Continue Reading
Something I couldn’t write when my blog was down October 11, 2011 I couldn’t have said it better than this letter writer did in the DNT: This letter is about the property tax issue. I had… Continue Reading
Nobodies talking about it October 5, 2011 Only about twenty people went to last night’s school board forum. That’s a bit of a rebuttal to the notion of building something so… Continue Reading
Good luck… September 23, 2011 …figuring out how this will affect your property taxes. It comes from Minnesota Public Radio. The DNT reported a while back that losing the… Continue Reading
Virgil’s swing… September 3, 2011 …is not a miss. Only his Budgeteer column is missing from the DNT’s online site. That’s too bad. He points out that the public… Continue Reading
I wish the School District could get… July 11, 2011 …a $2.3 million settlement from JCI! Only we should be able to collect $15 million. First it was guaranteed that JCI wouldn’t get a… Continue Reading
As the Red Planners kept reminding us… May 8, 2011 …our leaders were elected to make such decisions. A short, sour and altogether honest assessment of some of our current City Fathers, several of… Continue Reading
From the Past February 27, 2011 Sent to me by an email friend: News Tribune Feb. 23, 1971 * Members of the Duluth School Board were asked yesterday to support… Continue Reading
7 million (per year) short of a solution? January 3, 2011 I don’t subscribe to the Star Trib but I received this bit of intelligence from that paper today in an email. Its a year… Continue Reading
Good luck getting a new excess levy passed September 23, 2010 Its not only the Red Plan that has cost teacher’s jobs. Its the new teacher contract. On July 20, the board passed a $63… Continue Reading
About that JCI Steam Plant arbitration August 7, 2010 Everything seemed to be working out between JCI and the City of Duluth over the Steam Plant last April. Since then the City Council… Continue Reading
Judicial politics June 30, 2009 Brandon Stahl’s reliable BuzzDuluth.blog. which describes itself as: “A running conversation on city government and politics” has an interesting post on judicial politics. Its… Continue Reading