Michael does fun with math and then comes to this conclusion:
>I would suggest to those of you lobbying for NRP funding that
>you are making an implicit decision to reduce the funding available
>for education. It's not that this is an illegitimate choice, but you
>should admit what your priorities are.
>Who you gonna chose: the NRP or the public schools?
I believe this is an overly dire and overly certain conclusion.
It is true that the state must spend more to compensate school districts
that lose money to TIF. However, there is no proof that the state spends
less on education because it also compensates for TIF. It is as likely that
education funding - being the state's top priority -- doesn't suffer, and
the money comes from lesser priorities: the DNR budget, state tourism
spending, etc. Or that state taxpayers pay marginally higher taxes or
receive marginally lower tax cuts.
So one could also say: who you gonna choose: the state's wealthiest/biggest
taxpayers or NRP and the public schools? Or, who you gonna choose: an extra
rural boat launch or NRP and the public schools? That's a political choice,
too, but not as nasty as Michael posits.
There is also a possibility - though without numbers I can't pronounce it a
certainty or an impossibility - that TIF results in MORE state money going
to Minneapolis. In other words, the state sends more money to Minneapolis as
a heavy user of TIF, upping the city's share, while the money to pay such
bills comes from lighter users of TIF statewide. In other words, who you
gonna choose: Eagan or NRP and the public schools? Given that funding
formulas for education and local-government aid are set on a statewide
basis, but TIF is controlled locally, this is certainly possible.
I don't want to foreclose Michael's scenario, except to say it is one of
many.
And it even if true, it isn't as eithr/or as Michael suggests. I would argue
that by voting to for two Minneapolis school referenda -- and that no
serious Minneapolis mayoral candidate has called for the abolition of NRP --
we have made a local decision FOR public schools and the NRP. It may result
in more taxes than Michael likes - also not an illegitimate choice...if
that's what your priorities are.
David Brauer
King Field - Ward 10
_______________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy
Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more:
http://e-democracy.org/mpls
