Tim - I do not see how your referenda question is relevant to the discussion. Two substantive school referenda have passed in the last 3 years.
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Workshop 3
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Posted Friday Feb 23, 2007 10:56 #
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The power to circumvent the law, in this case the caps, is a valuable tool and carries a price.
If you were an investor in the stock market and the Federal Government capped growth on investment at 10% in any given year, your growth would be limited...if your portfolio went up 25% and you could only capture up to 10% you'd be getting cheated out of the difference.
If there was a tool (like referenda) available that would circumvent the cap and allow the individual in possession of that tool to go above the cap that tool would have a price.
That tool would be valuable.
That tool would be valuable above and beyond the value of the cap.
In my example above, the value would be the re-capture of the 15% you would not otherwise have gotten without the tool. That tool has value above and beyond the cap.
Let me repeat that...That tool has value above and beyond the cap.
One such tool in Riverside is referenda.
Historically, Riverside has repeatedly given that tool to our schools via referenda vote. You yourself even said you voted for every referenda for our schools.
IF you neglect the power of referenda to circumvent the law, the power that RIVERSIDE has freely given to its schools, when calculating the cost of a TIF to our schools... you are cheating the schools out of the VALUE of their tool.
(edit: freely to repeatedly)
Posted Friday Feb 23, 2007 11:54 # -
You may have to go slower on that one - you can certainly still have a referendum with a TIF. Also, I certainly would not say that tax referenda have been given freely in Riverside - I think its been more like hand-to-hand combat if you talk to those proponents of historical referenda. No, I do not have the data on historical referenda so I am speaking anectdotally.
Posted Friday Feb 23, 2007 12:03 # -
Mike S.
From Candi Grace in an earlier post,
"School Referenda are here to stay - get used to it.
Before the tax caps, taxing bodies could levy as much as they wanted up to their legal limit. For example, District 96's legal limit is about 2.49. So they could just levy whatever they felt they needed. Then the tax caps came in and allowed only a small percentage increase every year - either CPI or 5% whichever is less. This puts all taxing bodies in the position of needing a referendum on a more frequent basis.
Both RB and Dist 96 are going to need Education Fund referenda every 8-10 years and building fund referenda every 10 years. The CPI is a bad measure for the kinds of expenses that schools face. There was a move in the legislature to change to the ECI (employment cost index) as a more 'fair' index of the kinds of costs the schools incur. As far as I know, it got killed in committee.The schools will need a building fund referenda every 10 years because the state mandates a life-safety inspection every 10 years. And then you have to fix everything on the list..."
Candi Grace is a Trustee and used to be on the school board.
To misrepresent the future cost of the proposed TIF to our schools by limiting it to the tax cap and IGNORING the impact of referenda is misleading.
Posted Sunday Feb 25, 2007 09:26 #
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