Gov. Snyder's planned cuts to schools will create 'Kalkaskas' across the state
In the early 1990s, school officials were unsuccessful in getting school millages passed in Kalkaska, in the northwest part of Lower Michigan. Faced with insufficient funds, the school system was forced to close down earlier in the school year. The high school seniors held their graduations in March/April, and then the entire school system shut down for the balance of the school year. Education stopped dead in its tracks.
Because of that financial debacle, a bill called Proposal A came along and was passed by a vote of citizens across the state. State sales tax changed from 4% to 6%, property tax for home owners was capped at 18 mills, and school finance was largely in the hands of state of Michigan. School funds were to come out of the increased sales tax. At the time, these tradeoffs seemed to work, although some school districts were not so well funded as others.
Then sales tax revenues began to sag as Michigan's economy was buffeted by major shortfalls. American cars were not selling well. Foreign outsourcing of jobs by large corporations caused thousands of manufacturing jobs to disappear in the state, along with the income of those families to dwindle down to unemployment. Thanks to the bad behavior of Wall Street and others, the lending institutions dried up loans for houses, and so home values dropped. This caused the loss of lots of local school funding, since evaluation of homes were the basis of how much the homeowners were taxed locally.
Because Prop A put the financing of schools in the state's hands, districts could no longer ask for new millages from their property tax paying citizens. As Michigan's economy continued to sour, fewer dollars coming in to the state coffers meant fewer dollars sent to school districts. The legislature used a whole raft of shaky one-time fixes to prop up the budget, thus avoiding having to make the call to raise taxes.
Now comes Gov. Snyder's proposed budget. He is recommending that Michigan stop relying on financing tricks like the one-time extending the fiscal year to 15 months, which is why our fiscal year ends in September rather than the more common June 30th. His plan is to solve all of the years of fiscal tomfoolery and cowardice by making draconian cuts to vital services to the poor, the schools, to local units of government. These local cuts will mean fewer police and fire services, a detriment to our safety.
Michigan citizens did not cause any of this mess to happen. Corporations made conscious decisions to prosper by laying off Michigan workers and sending their work to China and other places. The banks and Wall Street wrecked the housing market, causing foreclosures for many citizens. Elected legislators sat on their hands to avoid dealing directly with sagging revenues, because they did not want to risk getting voted out of office or were posturing for a new office.
I respectfully disagree with much of the Snyder plan, since it favors tax cuts to many of the corporations who reduced the Michigan workforce by outsourcing jobs to China and elsewhere. These tax cuts would then be replaced by cutting school funding more and by taxing some retirees more. And Snyder seems unwilling to entertain any creative solutions if they involve tax increases. His efforts mirror several other Republican governors who all seem to be making financial decisions from the same playbook.
When the governor and the Legislature make drastic cuts to school financing, they are in fact creating dozens of Kalkaskas, pushing local school officials to gut their educational programs. Should we run schools until the money runs out and then close in February or March or April? Is this the best scenario for Michigan parents, to see their children's education truncated? Can't the legislators find the courage to make creative decisions that don't bring more grief to citizens? Can corporations prosper on the backs of school kids? Does Michigan deserve better?
Thomas W. Donnelly Canton
Comments
genetracy
Sat, Apr 9, 2011 : 4:55 p.m.
I own property and residences in Indiana and Michigan. Please explain to me why the property taxes in Michigan are twice what they in Indiana but Indiana has a balanced state budget? I have my opinions but let me hear yours first.
InsideTheHall
Sat, Apr 9, 2011 : 12:52 p.m.
Mr. Donnelly fails to mention he is a retired school teacher and was a member of a teachers union. His activist union mentality is well known. Not one mention about what role the unions had in the "Kalkaska debacle".
Edward R Murrow's Ghost
Sat, Apr 9, 2011 : 1:28 p.m.
Please tell us the unions' role in Kalkaska. Inquiring minds want to know. Good Night and Good Luck
joe baublis
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 11:19 p.m.
Donelly is wrong! Education does not stop merely because schools close. It's entirely arguable that most of what we learn - is learned OUTSIDE of the classroom. Furthermore, what a child learns should be directed by his or her parents - not by union controlled robots, and certainly not by the local, state, and federal governments that have all failed. Donelly has provided no direct link between the proposed budget and school funding. As such his claim should be disregarded. What we do know, is that the State of Michigan has approximately an 80 BILLION dollar debt (according to the debt clock), as a result of running yearly deficits for nearly 30 years in the amounts of approximately 1-2 Billion dollars per year. We also know that many school districts, cities and counties are deeply in debt and are also running yearly deficits. For example, the Saline School District was alleged to have been in debt of $205 Million (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqdVujKa1I8)" rel='nofollow'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqdVujKa1I8)</a>. Unable to maintain itself under that debt, the school district attempted to borrow more money ($29 million) under bonds payable by the saline property owners. We also know that the products of our schools (the students) are poorly prepared and are arguably incompetent in comparison to other Nations. We are essentially borrowing money to buy something that doesn't work. It is believed that many PEOPLE do not want to know the truth about our debt or about our deficits or about the real value of the products we create - they just want to continue borrowing and spending money - and DONELLY appears to be in that camp, his unsubstantiated opinion notwithstanding. Submitted by Joe Baublis, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 9:50 p.m.
To contradict the author - Michigan did cause these funding problems. Perhaps not the entire state - but certain elements are far more responsible for this than others. The trends on spending are clear as day - and now the day has come that the wrong lines are crossing on that spending graph. Repeat after me - Michigan is broke. What ever happened decades ago is simply now the past. We need solve problems today - and do so in a way that boosts the tax base. Cutting taxes and cutting spending will grow the economy - more money in your pocket and less risk to business so they can Hire! Raising taxes, even on the 1% uber- rich, will just chase folks away. Outsourcing is simply a way to avoid taxes and over charging wages. Do you pay too much for goods and services you buy? Likely not. Neither do work force job providers (aka Corporations)
1bit
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 7:35 p.m.
"I respectfully disagree with much of the Snyder plan, since it favors tax cuts to many of the corporations who reduced the Michigan workforce by outsourcing jobs to China and elsewhere. " No, the tax cuts favor small businesses which have not outsourced jobs to China. This opinion piece can be summarized in a single sentence: "Don't cut me, I can't possibly do with less."
SonnyDog09
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 6:42 p.m.
If I understand the article, there are no school administrators who have any idea how to manage their organization with less money. Perhaps we could replace them with management that has some experience working with less.
grye
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 4:52 p.m.
If the school systems would have been looking at ways to reduce costs over the past 15 to 20 years, they may have had enough rainy day funds to accomodate the necessary cuts today. I am not in full agreement with reducing funds without providing some direction in ways to save money. Your issue with business tax cuts is wrong. Businesses need to grow to allow additional jobs to be created. If we continue to tax them at ever higher rates, how will they grow? Where will the new jobs come from that are so sorely needed?
RayA2
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 4:21 p.m.
Slick Rick has a long history of aggresively pursuing outsourcing. If anyone didn't hear that fact during the election, they live under a rock. And why wouldn't Slick support outsourcing? Its a win-win for him. He gets to temporarily pay less in wages and benefits, that is until skilled labor demand exceeds supply in the jobs receiving countries. Slick also creates for himself a much better hand at the collective bargaining table, and thus the remaining local wages and benefits are reduced as well. Lower local wages for working people also gives Slick more political power. Increased political power allows Slick to reduce his own, so-called "business", taxes and eliminate regulations that reduce his profits but protect the general population from his greed. This is the Republican playbook and Slick is the Joe Montana of this game.
DonBee
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 10:03 p.m.
RayA2 - You obviously been reading a different history of Gateway, than I did. Governor Snyder created a large number of company jobs in the US during his time running Gateway. He then left and returned later, at a time when it was impossible for US clone makers to build machines in the US, IBM (nee Levano), HP, Apple, and others now build the bulk of computers and devices off shore.
RayA2
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 4:30 p.m.
No offense Joe.
Daniel
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 3:29 p.m.
Kalkaska would love to get the dollars per student funding that AA gets. If they did, they would be open all year. For that matter the rest of Washtenaw county public schools would be trilled to be living on the amount of money AA gets. How about posting the amount of money the school districts receive. There are about 50 that were grandfathered in and receive considerably more than others. Since we all live in Michigan, shouldn't all students receive the same? We certainly expect them all to perform the same!
aataxpayer
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 5:31 p.m.
Are you kidding? The cost of living and average wage in Ann Arbor is much higher than up north.
Floyd
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 2:44 p.m.
This is a well reasoned plea for a change in our school funding mechanism, which is outmoded and schizophrenic. It is ironic that Snyder believes in paying out tax incentives so that companies will make the choice to come or stay in Michigan, but that same philosophy is not applied to school funding - instead, communities like Ann Arbor, which are willing to pay for good education, are held hostage by Proposal A and dragged down toward mediocrity and insolvency. Snyder himself demonstrates his value for good education by staying in Ann Arbor as governor and paying $17,000 a year for his daughter to go to Greenhills School. Unfortunately, Proposal A limits Ann Arbor's ability to even approach what the governor pays. On top of this, Snyder is planning on a tax break for himself and the parents of his daughter's friends, so paying for Greenhills will get easier if you're rich. Sadly, this tax break is literally being squeezed out of the Proposal A state money pot for public schools. This is a governor who clearly does not believe in public education. And this is why we need local control of our schools back.
DonBee
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 10 p.m.
Floyd - Wrong. Most of Governor Snyder sent his children to AAPS until his daughter, the last of his children in K-12 asked to join her friends at Greenhills. If you go check the graduation from Huron over the last few years you his children graduated from there.
bornblue
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 2:34 p.m.
Taxing Corporations is not the answer because they directly pass that cost onto the consumer. Higher taxes mean higher prices, a corporate tax is a disguised tax on the American people. Limit how big they get using anti-trust regulation, but don't tax them more, tax incomes. The middle class shouldn't pay any taxes because they are the driving force of the economy. They buy the most stuff, cars, tv's, food, etc. The upper class should pay most because they contribute less to the economy, how many man hours does it take to make a yacht? But then the lower classes should also pay taxes because they take advantage of MOST of the government funding while still spending almost all of their money on goods. End tax breaks and corporate incentives, have a clear 9% state corporate tax. Make the income tax look like an inverted bell curve, where the middle class pays no taxes, upper class pays the most, and the lower class pays some but not a lot of taxes. Trickle down economics doesn't work because the rick invest their money while the other half buys stuff. That is what we need, people buying stuff, because those same people make stuff. Don't attack corporations because that is attacking Americans, attack the rich, they're the ones hording all of this nations wealth while we struggle to keep the lights on.
Basic Bob
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 2:26 p.m.
"Ann Arbor is a generous town" NOT The vast majority of Ann Arbor progressives want their money back that is sent to Detroit. Forget that they are well-off and spend the hold harmless money as if it is some kind of birthright. Forget that the schools are better just because rich kids from educated families come to school prepared to learn. They want the money so they don't have to close schools they don't need, negotiate firmly with the teachers, and pay absurd amounts to an unproven superintendent. Ann Arbor wants the money so they can continue to attract People Like Us.
DonBee
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 9:57 p.m.
aataxpayer - For your base millage, you are correct. For the bond fund, the sinking fund, the special education millage and if it had passed the enhancement millage - all of it stayed in the county. For Ypsilanti, Willow Run and several other county schools, they gain from Ann Arbor's largeness. I hear people here complain we should have graduated income taxes so everyone pays their fair share. Then we get to school funding and those same folks want their money back.
aataxpayer
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 5:29 p.m.
As a community we have been getting less than 30% return on our taxes send to the state for schools to support urban and rural schools and we have also taxed ourselves even more for capital improvements. Seems generous to me, but there has to be a limit.
Dante Marcos
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 2:15 p.m.
A very well-written piece. Thanks, Mr. Donnelly. If Governor Snyder's children were in, for example, Ypsilanti public schools, I doubt he would be dragging low- and middle-income families onto the butcher block. The fact is, though, that Snyder is A) a multimillionaire, B) lives behind the iron bars of a gated community, and C) his children go to an expensive private school. We can hope that he'll wake up to the reality of what it's like to try and stay alive—to just get by—for all those of us who make $34,000 and less per year. But history demonstrates that the rich tend, in fact, to grow *more* avaricious over time, rather than less. Even Warren Buffet is a joke. There is good news, though: once Paul and Ari train Snyder's staff, we'll all have a fresh bottle of Heinz catsup on our tables. And poor families will be able to look in windows all over the state and salivate over beautiful, 20-dollar sandwiches. In all seriousness, though: One Term Nerd won't be around forever, and in polls his job approval percentages are in the high 30s. So it's not only "progressives" that are outraged. It's almost three-quarters of the population of our lovely state. "Conflict is the beginning of everything." —Heraclitus
DonBee
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 9:52 p.m.
Dante Marcos - Gated community, iron bars? Not, he lives in Superior township. There are fences yes, but to keep the horses in. His children attended AAPS, until his youngest wanted to follow her friends to another school. My children rode the bus with all of them.
1bit
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 7:33 p.m.
No, the opinion (like yours) contains convenient mistruths and misunderstandings to try and prove a point. To your opinion: 1. Who cares if Gov. Snyder lives in a shack, a mansion, behind a white picket fence or gates? You do apparently. What is your standard then? A one-bedroom home with an outhouse? 2. Same thing for how much money Gov. Snyder has. He didn't steal it, or is this what you are alluding? How much money should he make or have? Your idea is then a cutoff that no one over a certain monetary value should be Gov.? What is the cutoff then and who put you in charge to decide it? By the way, he was ELECTED. 3. Not all of his children went to private school. Some went to public school. What, again, is your point? In fact, by sending his kid to private school he is helping reduce class sizes at public schools. You do realize he is still paying taxes like everyone else?
sh1
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 1:35 p.m.
I don't think we'll see another Kalkaska. With the emergency financial manager law in place, Snyder can send in someone who can take over contracts, curriculum, and schedules. We'll be more likely to see drastic cuts in benefits while increasing classroom size. And don't forget this is the time where teachers are being held accountable for each child in the classroom who isn't passing standardized tests.
Top Cat
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 12:58 p.m.
"Michigan citizens did not cause any of this mess to happen." The notion that we are all passive and hapless victims is ridiculous. The problems the author speaks to did not happen overnight. Some are national in scope. However, the Governor and the Legislature are elected by us. If Prop A is part of the problem, it can be changed. Michigan's business climate is ranked as one of the worst and it can be changed as well. Ultimatelty it is the decision of the taxpayers and their representatives as to how to compensate public education workers. Let's put the handerchiefs away and get busy.
snoopdog
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 12:56 p.m.
Hey Tom , your solution is what exactly ? Blame it all on the evil corporations that moved their business elsewhere, come on that is ridiculous. Let us know if and when you find that magic "money tree", till then there is never going to be enough money to keep funding schools at the current level. The only common sense alternative is to cut costs and get rid of the fat and that starts with pension/healthcare and contract reform with the unions ! Good Day
Moscow On The Huron
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 12:39 p.m.
Same sky-is-falling message, just somebody else's turn to post it. Who's scheduled for Monday?
DonBee
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 12:36 p.m.
The SKY is falling, the sky is falling.
DonBee
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 9:50 p.m.
How many football coaches will AAPS hire and football stadiums will AAPS renovate before people realize the priorities are wrong. How much more will they spend on administration before people realize the priorities are wrong? How much money will we waste on having 10 school administrations in the county before people realize there is a better way?
aataxpayer
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 5:32 p.m.
How many teachers need to be cut before you'll conclude the sky is falling?
aataxpayer
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 : 12:22 p.m.
Let's not bad mouth Kalkaska. Great fishing. Let's also remember that Engler was from Mt. Pleasant and designed proposal A to take money from wealthy areas to finance Detroit and rural schools. Ann Arbor and a few wealthy suburbs are donor districts are frankly we are donating too much. We were supposed to be held harmless, but that isn't happening. Ann Arbor is a generous town, but there are limits. I don't have a solid number, but people familiar with the funding model agree that Ann Arbor gets back less than 30 cents for each dollar sent to Lansing via sales and property taxes earmarked for schools. This system will not allow Ann Arbor to maintain the excellent public schools it needs to remain an economic bright spot in this state. It is well past time to restore the hold harmless concepts that were part of Prop A and allow Ann Arbor to have the schools it needs to remain an area that attract money and people to Michigan.