dec City Council Meeting – interesting study sessions pdf
by matthew on Wed Nov 04 08:40:13 CST 2009
No real excitement in the Council Chamber last night. The most interesting parts of the meeting were the study session presentations. 
First, there was a quick summary of the farm progress show. It was a nice enough presentation – basically it communicated the show was a big success, and the organizers are think we are good hosts. I think the general consensus is the farm progress show in Decatur is a win for everyone.
The second study session item is more of a head-scratcher. Representatives from the Decatur Schools Task Force gave a presentation and a showed a 10min video in support of modernizing the Decatur Public School District 61 facilities….Fine…It’s great for the council to hear from another governmental body, and I’m sure the council will be happy to help District 61 to the extent that it can.
It’s my understanding the school board is pushing to ask the county to impose an additional sales tax to improve county-wide schools.   I think the presentation was geared towards gently introducing the notion of a county-wide increase in sales-tax to the public via the city council. 
Has anyone heard more about the proposal? To pass a county-wide tax, it would have to go on a ballot – during a regular election cycle. I think it will be pretty hard to pass – especially in these financial times.
Anyone have thoughts on this?
by haydiz on Wed Nov 04 10:32:04 CST 2009
I knew the task force was considering a sales tax to help pay for the upgrades but I didn't know it was going to be a county-wide proposal.  I don't see that going over very well considering Forsyth and Mt. Zion already have new schools.  I'm not that familar with the other districts in the county, so I don't know where they would stand on it.  It would be nice in theory, as long as there were some intergovernmental cooperation, like other taxes being decreased to offset the sales tax but ha ha ha on that.

The funding issue is going to be a tough one for the schools.  I think we HAVE to upgrade our high schools.  Doing nothing is not even an option in my book.  It's probably going to take several streams of revenue to make this happen and considering our economy, ugh, I don't even want to think about the comments that are going to be said and what an uphill battle it's going to be.  But people have to realize that now is the time to invest in ourselves, if we really want to attract business to Decatur and retain and attract new families.  It's like spending money on college or training for a new field.  It takes an initial investment but it pays off in the end.  No pain, no gain.

Kris
by matthew on Wed Nov 04 15:03:23 CST 2009
OK, we have to upgrade the “bricks-and-mortar” of District 61 – spiffy. I’m curious why can’t the school board suck it up, bite the bullet and secure financing using the tools available to them like any other government body? 
Is this not -  in effect - the school board throwing up their hands, declaring themselves incapable of responsible long-term financing, seceding responsibility, and throwing themselves on the mercy of other local governmental bodies? Bodies that have no jurisdiction over the public school system! 
Let’s cut to the chase…Here’s what I think will happen:
·         Communities in the non district 61 area will not accept the sales tax idea
o   What about school districts partially outside of Macon County? (Unit 100?)
o   Potential for taxation without representation?
·         Imposing sales tax without corresponding property tax decrease is painful!
·         The County will not pass a sales tax for the schools benefit (it’s not their prevue)
·         The task force will come back to the council  and ask for a city-sales-tax increase
o   The city is a home-rule body, so they could pull off a sales tax (obviously!)
o   Most of District 61lies within the city limits
 
At that point we’ll have an interesting confrontation: the “anti-property-tax” crowd vs. the “anti-sales-tax” crowd. 
 
I’m inclined to think school funding reform should happen, and distributing a portion of State sales tax in addition to modest property tax is a reasonable way to fund the system. I don’t think it’s a good idea to impose finer-grained county or city sales taxes…
 
The blunt truth of it:
The school district is a discrete unit of government – if they want to impose a sales tax, they should lobby the state and obtain the right to either get part of the existing sales tax revenue, or get the State legislature to give them the power to impose a tax for themselves.
 
More to come…
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