{"id":2950,"date":"2010-05-17T23:13:32","date_gmt":"2010-05-18T04:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=2950"},"modified":"2010-05-17T23:13:32","modified_gmt":"2010-05-18T04:13:32","slug":"a-break-trust-with-the-voters-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=2950","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;a break trust with the voter&#8217;s&#8221; law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.startribune.com\/politics\/state\/93904204.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU\">From the Minneapolis Star Trib<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bid to let schools renew taxes without a vote sinks K-12 bill<\/p>\n<p>By <a href=\"http:\/\/www.startribune.com\/bios\/10644761.html\" $included=null>PAT DOYLE, Star Tribune<\/p>\n<p>Last update: May 17, 2010 &#8211; 1:51 AM<\/p>\n<p>The Minnesota House voted Sunday to give school boards the power to renew expiring property tax hikes without voter approval, but the Senate balked at the idea.<\/p>\n<p>The provision was included in a large K-12 education bill and defended by DFLer supporters as needed to counter a shortfall in state funding. Opponents said the proposal would deny voters the ability to renew a property tax increase previously approved by referendum.<\/p>\n<p>The House passed the larger bill, 77 to 53. The Senate, however, voted 38 to 24 to send the bill back to a conference committee after some members said it would probably be vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. As this edition went to press, the bill technically was still alive, as backers had a few hours remaining to try to get through a revised version.<\/p>\n<p>Pawlenty opposes the K-12 measure and its property tax provision. &#8220;It&#8217;s important that citizens keep their right to vote on school district operating levies,&#8221; said Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung.<\/p>\n<p>Under the measure, school boards would be limited to renewing only the same per-pupil funding provided by a referendum for the same length of time. Boards would need to hold public hearings before renewing a tax increase. The power to renew would expire in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters noted that cities and counties have the power to hike taxes without referendums.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Mindy Greiling, DFL-Roseville, sponsor of the measure, said there were &#8220;worthy arguments&#8221; against the provision, but said it was needed until the state can provide more aid to school districts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we do not do our duty statewide to fund our schools, we have to look for stopgap measures,&#8221; said Rep. Brita Sailer, DFL-Park Rapids.<\/p>\n<p>But Rep. Sandra Masin, DFL-Eagan, said, &#8220;I am not going to go home and tell my constituents that I took away their right to vote.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Who better to decide if that district survives than the voters of that district?&#8221; asked Rep. Paul Anderson, R-Starbuck, who called the provision &#8220;a break of trust with voters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The bill also lacked an alternative teacher licensure program that Republicans sought.<\/p>\n<p>Pat Doyle \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 651-222-1210<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Minneapolis Star Trib Bid to let schools renew taxes without a vote sinks K-12 bill By PAT DOYLE, Star Tribune Last update:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}