This could be a busy day for Red Plan posts.
I’ve been sending out email about the progress of the Jaros Bill to our Let Duluth Vote e-mailing list. I’ve been urging Senator Tom Bakk to hold his ground. I’ve found out that Governor Pawlenty is a hypocrite. Red Plan supporters have just organized a counter group to Let Duluth Vote and Restore Our Schools. They are lobbying against the Jaros-Bakk legislation. But I’d like to start the day with a voice of common sense. A letter to the editor in today’s paper is so good I’m posting it in full. I have no idea who the author is. It will be hard for “Damn Democracy, Move Foward Duluth” to counter this line of argument against the Red Plan.
“No cost to us? We’ve heard that before
Now the School Board is trying to tell us the tax implications of the red plan would only be $125 million (“The red plan works and the price is right,” April 16). When a taxing authority sells bonds, taxpayers are responsible, even if there’s a plan to pay down the amount with savings (which would be less likely in Duluth if an operating levy fails this fall.)Duluth has fallen for this before. The aquarium wasn’t going to cost taxpayers a cent. The parking ramp near the St. Mary’s Duluth Clinic expansion was built using eminent domain to secure air rights that’ll now cost more than $500,000. How many of these projects are we in Duluth going to pay for before saying enough?
Superintendent Keith Dixon seems to be trying to sell this plan as a “reasonable” or “fiscally responsible” way to improve schools. I agree schools need work, but I don’t believe it’s fiscally responsible to spend millions to rebuild Ordean when the district owns a building half Ordean’s age on twice the property. Central High School would cost much less to upgrade, wouldn’t require eminent domain and would leave room for expansion. Students taking classes at the Secondary Vocational Technical Center on the Central campus could even walk rather than be bused across town. This didn’t seem to be considered by Johnson Controls.
A comment made recently that a construction season would be lost by calling for a vote on the red plan was wrong. A vote last November wouldn’t have delayed anything. A majority vote would have made the implementation of the red plan easier. Time and resources wouldn’t be being spent fighting for this unpopular plan.
School Board members have shown the community how much they value the community’s opinion by denying a vote.”
