Bookmark Questions and Answers
Here are the questions and the answers for the bookmarks Shelley hands out as she visits members of the community. You can also see these questions and answers online on her blog.
Why have my property taxes gone up under the no-new taxes pledge?
Property taxes have continued to rise because the push in the past few years has been to make cities and towns pay for services that have been traditionally paid for by the state. By denying our city governments Local Government Aid (LGA), the Minnesota Legislature has forced cities and counties to increase property taxes to help pay a much larger percentage of the costs for fire, water, police and other services. These services are generally mandated by the state and federal governments; changes or reductions are not an option.
Now, for some, this looks like a great idea. The rationale is that you live in your community and you should pay for your own services. Where this philosophy breaks down is for families and seniors on fixed incomes. These people pay a bigger percentage of their incomes to taxes than any other group. When they have to brace themselves for fee increases in all services plus a larger property tax bill, the pressure on them is enormous.
What are we electing our officials to do when we send them to the Capitol and they come back with statements like, "If you want it, convince your voters, because I can't make that decision?"
Our citizens need changes much more frequently then simple annual reviews, and as communities grow it is hard to plan budgets for more than a five year period. If our elected officials abdicate their responsibility by making citizens continuously request local governments to restore needed services, then our elected representation is AWOL.
Leadership means taking a stand for the community in which you live and protecting the rights of everyone who lives there.
You will find a wonderful overview of how property taxes are assessed on the Dakota County website. Please go to:
Dakota County Treasurer-Auditor Department
You can also visit your city websites for more information on the process.
Why are there 31 kids in my child's classroom?
There are 31 kids in the classroom because we can't afford to heat an extra room, hire another teacher and pay to bus that student to the school building. Because of our district's education-priority based budgeting and fiscally conservative managers, we enjoy high academic achievement, costs below the state average and we are able to produce state champions on all levels. We are the lucky ones.
Our local school district #196 has not had an increase in funds from the state in several years. The district has been held hostage to increased expenditure demands with a little changing revenue stream. Since 2002-03, the per pupil funding aid paid by the state has remained at $4,600 per student. It costs us $7,825 to educate a regular student in our district.
The state gives us additional funding to help cover the costs of special education services and the federal government also gives us funding, but we still have a deficit every year. Our school district pays for services beyond K-12. It pays for early childhood education, ECFE and community education programs. We are also required by the state of Minnesota to conduct Pre-Kindergarten screening. The funding for this has remained significantly below service costs for at least a decade.
Last year, a necessary $5.5 million dollar cut resulted in the layoff of 50 teachers. In addition, we have declining enrollments in some areas so 30 more teachers were cut. This affects our per pupil funding from the state.
I do not believe that our students are well served by legislative gimmicks that promote a Q Comp proposal and mandatory spending of 65 percent to support the classroom. These two recent proposals have no correlation to successful student achievement.
Our families deserve to have their children receive the quality education that Minnesotans believe in. Public schools graduate the workers and taxpayers of tomorrow. Do we really want to leave them with the impression that our educational system is not a priority?
To view the annual report profile, please visit www.district196.org or the state's website at www.education.state.mn.us and click on school report card.
Why is so little attention paid to the needs of renters?
I believe that historically the Republican Party places little value on renters because they are of the opinion that the vast majority of renters do not vote. They do not believe that renters participate in their local governments and that renters do not have a stake in their communities.
Renters pay their property taxes through their rents. It is included as part of the rent by the owner of the property. As with any property owner, they have a right to plowed streets, good schools and a high quality of life. They have full voting rights for any issue that affects our community. For me, it is not an issue if someone rents a home or owns it when it comes to living in a community.
For our Republican caucus members, there appears to be some confusion on this issue. Renters are being asked to give up their share of the property tax refund. Currently, renters are allowed - if they qualify - to receive a refund for their portion of their taxes. That represents $113 million dollars and 270,000 renting households. Of that, 90,000 seniors are directly impacted. On average, the seniors who file for the refund have household incomes of less than $46,000 a year.
At the same time, our republican legislature is proposing a "turbo-charged" truth in taxation proposal that gives land owners the right to voice their objections to property taxations on the county level. The cities and county would have to respond to the property owners - not all community members. The cost of this program is huge and its impact on our community could be devastating.
Renters and homeowners need to work together for the benefit of their communities.
Why aren't Minnesota's roads getting fixed?
They aren't getting fixed because we have neglected to invest new dollars into the system for more than two decades. This issue is not new. Given the years that Governor Pawlenty spent in the Minnesota Legislature, he has been well aware of the need for new infrastructure development and maintenance requirements of our transit systems, roads and bridges.
For more than two years, we have had business leaders (Itasca Project, MN Transportation Alliance and the MN Business Chamber of Commerce) from all over the state work to educate our elected officials on the need for transportation dollars. We have had several regionally organized groups such as the 35W Solutions Alliance solicit for more funding. Citizens groups like Transit for Livable Communities have also come forward.
Here in our area, Dakota County residents list transportation related issues as their number one concern for our growing communities.
There has been lot education on this topic, and yet no real change has been made at the state capitol! Putting a VETO on a bi-partisan transportation bill, which would have provided the dollars and a dedicated funding stream for these services to our business and community leaders, was a very wrong move by Governor Pawlenty.
The Governor keeps trying to convince us that raising taxes at all, for any reason, will push all the businesses out Minnesota. I don't think so. I believe the fact is we cannot grow our state's economic base if people cannot get to work and businesses cannot move their goods quickly and easily.
To learn more about these groups, please visit:
If it costs me more, does it matter if it's a fee or tax?
It doesn't matter what they call it -- it is still money out of your pocket. But the real question is what do you get for it?
Everybody seems to be in agreement, we need more revenue. Even the Republican House, whose mantra has been "We have a spending problem", is desperate for more money whether it be fees or more gambling revenue. Despite the fact that the majority of Minnesotans do not want more gambling, the Governor continues to force gambling as the best solution to our revenue needs.
It's not what they call it; it's what you get for it. We desperately need new investments in our communities and our people. The roads need fixing, the schools need more funding and our caregivers need help. The bottom line is that our state, and its wonderful quality of life, is in desperate need of repair.
You can't sell your house if the foundation is crumbling -- and to fix it, you need to pay for it. If you do it right, you will get it all back with interest when you sell it. Well, our foundation has been neglected for years and we might as well be up front with the "owners" and tell them what our lack of investments and attention is going to cost.
Hiding it with "fees" and more loans is not honest and the band-aids we are applying now will cost us more later.
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