2003-02-20 - 7:30 a.m.
FOR THIS?
Well, we now know how our governor is going to solve his fiscal problem. He�s going to pass it on to me. Lucky me, I get hit in two ways. First, as a state employee, I�ll pay more for my health insurance (and I already pay several hundred dollars a month) and I�ll probably watch some people I know get laid off. I anticipate a higher caseload too�although the governor didn�t get quite so specific. But that way is the direct way. The other way is the sneaky way.
I also will take a bit hit as an elected local official. He is proposing cutting all state aid to our local school districts. He plans to take the �cap� off teachers� salaries but keep the spending caps on us. We�ve cut our budgets for the past few years�deeply for the last two. Our class size has gone up, our arts programs will be trimmed back a bit, and we have very few classroom aides left. We will be laying off teachers unless we suddenly get some unexpected retirements.
The bottom line on all of this fiscal wizardry? Local property taxes will rise faster than in the rest of the state even as we make cuts that will cause the parents in our district to consider private schools. Once we gut our public schools enough, our property values will drop. (My little house is not much to look at. It�s real value is being in the school district. I just told Mr. Philately we should start thinking about when to sell to keep value without uprooting the kids.)
So who will be the bad guy? The governor? Maybe but he�s a democrat and they wouldn�t like him much in this neck of the fake-suburban woods anyway. No, more likely it will be the easier and more convenient target: me and my fellow board members.
I survived a brutal election for this?
Are we having fun yet?
LAST YEAR: Belle of the Purim Play
LAST FIVE ENTRIES:
A League of Someone Else�s
Evita
Everything I Need to Know About Homeland Security I Learned at the Seton Camp-Out
The Means
Class Warfare
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
