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Thursday, January 3, 2008

The Queen is Dead...Long Live the King

Those words will ring out at some point across the United Kingdom as Queen Elizabeth II will end her monarchy and be succeeded by her son Charles (or grandson William as some have suggested.)

But why wait for the UK of the future when right here in Morrisville we have this today.

President Sandy Gibson was variously described in shades of evil well over the boundaries of good taste and common law. However, the new board would ride to the rescue and fix all of her transgressions against the good folk of Morrisville.

President William Hellmann CPA is the new King, but curiously enough, following the same alleged imperial leanings. In addition, they complained that Hellmann did not provide the board with appropriate information ahead of the meeting that would allow them to make a decision Wednesday night. Chalk another one up for the Wheel of Karma. See the BCCT article from today. And just to set the record straight...Brenda Worob should publicly declare how she would have voted on this resolution. Life intrudes and there may have been very good reasons why she was not available. However, here's board member number 2 who has ducked out on dealing with information that might be embarrassing. Do not give these people a free pass.

The Morrisville school board passed a resolution 5-3 Wednesday night promising to keep the district’s real estate tax inflation rate increase at 4.4 percent or less for the 2008-09 school year.

The state’s Taxpayer Relief Act, known as Act 1, mandates this limit already. Ordinarily, boards do not adopt special resolutions against increasing taxes beyond the state mandated percentage. However, some board members believed it was important to pass the resolution to reinforce campaign promises to not raise taxes.

The preliminary budget of $21.95 million will be available for public review today on the district’s Web site, www.mv.org.

President William Hellmann, board members Marlys Mihok, William Farrell, Gloria Heater and Alfred Radosti voted for the referendum. Member Brenda Worob was absent.

The decision comes less than two months after the election of a school board that is largely against the building of a new $30 million pre-K through 12th grade consolidated school to take the place of three ailing existing schools.

Prior to the election, the district spent more than $2 million for engineering, architectural and other fees related to the proposed facility. In addition, a $30 million bond was approved for the planned building.

However, the current board’s scrapping of the proposed $30 million construction project last December has left the district with the prior financial obligations.

The district expects to be able to repay the principal of the bond through a maturing investment that will generate interest. Therefore, the bond issue should eventually be recovered. Hellmann said he is still working out the details with a financial consultant and couldn’t say how long it would take to recover the bond money.

Board members Robin Reithmeyer and Joseph Kemp said passing the resolution to hold tight to the 4.4 percent increase could be financially irresponsible because of those debts and other unforeseen obligations.

In addition, they complained that Hellmann did not provide the board with appropriate information ahead of the meeting that would allow them to make a decision Wednesday night.

“If we pass this resolution we will be shutting the door to the possibility of exceptions,” said Reithmeyer. “We can still cut the budget to 4.4 percent [without passing the resolution].”

Hellmann countered that there was room in the budget without applying for exceptions.

Hellman pointed to cuts to the contingency fund and in pension contributions, overtime pay for support staff and teaching salaries in areas including extracurricular, substitute and secondary reading.

School districts cannot raise taxes past a predetermined percentage set by the state without a voter referendum in the April primary election.

A school district has to present a final budget plan by Jan. 22, but it may be tweaked until June 30, when the finalized budget must be passed.

The preliminary budget was presented at the Dec. 12 meeting as $21.95 million. This is less than the expected revenue of roughly $21.99 million from various sources. The district expected to collect about $13 million in real estate taxes, up from about $12 million this year.

The board will vote on any revisions to the preliminary budget at a board meeting on Jan. 23.

The school district serves 1,052 children.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brenda Worob broke her leg and is in a rehab center. While it may be important to ask how she would have voted on this issue, she has a very valid excuse for missing the meeting.

Save The School said...

The excuses rarely get better than that. I may not agree with Brenda Worob's politics, but I certainly do not wish any ill upon her. I hope that she has a speedy and full recovery.

Ken said...

Does anyone know if Tonya Harding was seen lurking around Morrisville, particularly in the area of Grandview Estates?

Ken said...

I might also point out that while Hellmann may be President of the board, he is NOT the King. (Maybe "COUNT" would be an appropriate title for a CPA).

The "King of All Morrisville" is Steve Worob - self proclaimed in 2003 while dancing atop his kitchen (or was it dining room?) table at a victory party. If you don't believe it, ask those who were there!

Jon said...

Most of those who were there would a) deny they were there, and b) deny that he said that, even though they allegedly weren't there to not hear it. Huh?

I hope the broken leg wasn't from kicking ass, because what's next, a broken hand from takin' names?