BUDDY CAN YOU SPARE ME A DIME?

This question "Buddy can you spare me a dime" is most often associated with our Great Depression here in America, a depression that was exacerbated by our brethren on the left, just as the Great Recession that we live in today was both created and is exacerbated by these individuals ( excuse me, these collectivist community members- they would disdain the idea of being an INDIVIDUAL, all alone by themselves). In any event, yes, the big spenders. People who blithely spend, NOT THEIR OWN MONEY, but the public money, as if they themselves were benefactors of goodness. They take $2,000.00 a year from my family for the schools, if I only count property tax. Just look at your property tax bill and take 67% of that amount and voila! you will know what the schools are taking from your family. This amount has gone up over the years as the schools have built their kingdom.

I was at the school board meeting last night, feeling very small and insignificant, as these mighty people spent money just like it didn't matter- they're rich on your money!! They decided with very little discussion that they needed a NEW ADMINISTRATOR, yes, that would be about $90,000.00 a year! WOW- WHEN I STARTED TEACHING, TEACHERS GOT NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR! Things have certainly progressed in the schools. When questioned our new Superintendent admitted that he will be hiring another tech position too- that would be replacing one retiree, and adding  one new tech position (about $50,000.00) and one new ADMINISTRATOR. Dr. Kultgen hasn't learned to lie yet- he put it right out there. The new ADMINISTRATOR will be paid to supervise a grand total of six in this newly created technology department. I went up to the individual who was supposedly the head of technology, and asked her what her title was, since Dr. Kultgen had referred to her handling New Teacher Orientation. She giggled and said it was in flux- she kind of did technology, and libraries and professional development. So- no one leaves and more positions are added. Remember that this district is in DEFICIT. This district is CHARGING STUDENTS TO PLAY SPORTS AND INCREASED THE FEE to cover DEFICITS. Well, if you run out of money there's always fees and one time maintenance funds allocated by the state to use. And what will happen next year when that ONE TIME money is gone?

Not to worry, our district has a good Bond Rating because we have self insured our staff for health insurance and we put that money in a fund- we have eleven million dollars in that HEALTH INSURANCE FUND- so that makes our district fiscally sound. Michael O'neil, trustee, informed us that this is one of the advantages of being self insured! So- the bond raters count money, which should be there as health insurance, as spendable money by the district!! But don't worry, they assured me THEY WOULD NEVER SPEND THAT MONEY FOR OTHER THINGS!! Do you believe that? I don't. In fact, the business manager said they could go right on blithely spending, even though there is THREE MILLION DOLLARS in tax money that is being held in protest from communications companies ( AT&T, Verizon, Alltel, Bresnan etc.), because the school district has the money in the HEALTH INSURANCE FUND!! The business manager explicitly told the board they would probably NEVER SEE all that tax money, because protested taxes rarely are paid in full.

The cost of the new bus contract came out- and yes it is significantly more than last year- why? Remember the seat belts? Yes indeed, we took the most expensive route- well we've got the money right? Even if the district is in deficit and there really never was a danger on our buses and no child was ever hurt-- 12.8% increase in elementary and 6.82% for high school- $82.44 per hour operational fee for regular buses and $104.75 for special buses. Where does all this money come from when we are in deficit? The mighty titans aren't worried- in fact they just contracted for cameras in the high schools and middle schools with an initial contract of $500,000 to $550,000. And what will service fees cost for that? Operational costs are 5 to 10 percent of that PER YEAR- add $25,000 to $50,000 to the budget EVERY YEAR. WOW. You sure do make friends with all these contracts, but where does all the money come from? Just from somewhere- maybe the health insurance fund- which has no controls like those evil insurance companies have. The school district can just take what they want and spend what they want I guess. The school district health plan is hundreds of dollars more expensive per month than a comparable private company. Why is that?

Just as I was about to write this blog I got a notice of a school board meeting to be held at the Montana School Boards Association Building-  "Montana School Boards Association will facilitate discussion with the Board of Trustees regarding Governance,Trustee/Superintendent Relationships, and Flow of Communication." Now, you don't think they gave the MTSBA this contract just to give them money do you? Well, I do. I can't imagine when the MTSBA, a lobbying group paid by school districts from our hard earned tax money, became "Communication experts" and "Governance experts". This is just wasted money. If you don't know how to govern you shouldn't have run for the school board, and if you can't "communicate" with your new superintendent, why did you hire him?

All of this is just a microcosm of a world wide problem with socialists. We're all going broke and things are just getting worse as they CONTINUE TO ADD NEW COSTS AND NEVER STOP- Buddy can you spare me a dime? I spent all my money on taxes for new programs!