The best thing about Judy Seliga-Punyko’s column in the Budgeteer today was the explanation at the end.
Editor’s note: Judy Seliga Punyko wrote this column in response to Gary Glass’s column in the Aug. 16 Budgeteer. Glass was responding to Mimi Larson, who responded to Harry Welty, who responded to Budgeteer columnist Ralph Doty. Any future responses to this series will be published online only
Judy makes this claim which has been made and disputed for two years now.
“The long-range facilities plan saves $5.3 million per year.”
Judy then repeats the District’s line:
“On the other hand, based on the numbers provided by an independent consultant, Let Duluth Vote’s Plan B costs the average homeowner $9.50 per month and provides very little in the way of improvements to educational adequacy, safety and security and efficiency. The long-range facilities plan costs $9.22 a month, slightly less per taxpayer. And Plan B saves $1.1 million a year — nearly five times less than the LRFP.”
Judy further goes on to criticize the alternative plan for having “grammatical mistakes” and math errors.
A few other things are not in doubt.
The Red Plan will cost $293 million not counting interest.
Its savings are all speculative and not guaranteed.
The plan was conceived in such a way as to be a sweetheart deal for its originator, JCI, and to prevent a public vote.
The District has channeled operational money into the plan which the District explains away by saying the money is not needed for operations and will earn interest while being used to pay for the construction.
The District’s class sizes continue to increase.
Building a new High School on Ordean is cramming too many students into too small a space with inadequate streets to handle the traffic safely when a superior centrally located facility already exists.
Judy does not want the Red Plan to be put to a vote.
