10. Their School Budgets are just a synonym for Big, Bloated, Out-of-Control $pending 'Pots of Money' that get exponentially carried forward, at your expense, and result in unnecessary and outrageous increases in the school tax rate.
9. They carry forward excessive and unnecessary $pending every year and expand it exponentially with the 2% cap, use of the Bank Cap (to take back what they previously claimed as a savings) when necessary, hoard taxpayer relief money and build up reserves and engage in budget deception that lets them hire non-budgeted personnel and make other non-budgeted expenditures you never know about. The single biggest expenditure in the school budget is the Salary line - and it's the biggest padded line with its bogus 'breakage' budgeting among other things.
8. They often hoard additional aid that comes in after the school tax rate is struck and, more often than not, use it to increase $pending in the following year rather than return it to you.
7. The 'Public' copy of the School Budget you see is not the same format they send down for County and State approval.
6. Their budget line items are not always reflective of what they're thinking or where they'll be for the year since (unlike the Muni-budget) they can make budget transfers from line to line anytime they want during the year. It's a deceptive budgeting practice that allows them to later move money around to where they really want it.
5. They never tell you how they actually performed against these School Budgets they use to strike the School tax rate. A line-by-line comparison would shock you and you would see how bloated these School Budgets really are and how they move money around.
4. Even when you had the Right to Vote on these School Budgets, you were Never Voting to approve or disapprove the School Budget in total or its individual line-items - You were just Voting to approve or disapprove the School Tax Levy. They know that but You don't and they take advantage of it.
3. 'Public Meetings they have are a misnomer. These School Budgets are prepared by the School Board based on what they want - not what you may care about or want and hinder any attempt at public input. What they labeled and called this years's 'Public Meeting on March 18th was held without even presenting a School Budget to the Public, and most likely, to all Board Members.
2. The Bulk of the money to pay for these Bloated School Budgets, year after year, comes from you, the one who pays all the bills - the often neglected and maltreated Stakeholder, the Taxpayer.
1. This year's $274.2 million School Budget for 2021-22, aka 'Big Pot of Money' (that looks like somebody just picked the school tax rate change they wanted this year and worked backwards) is even more deceptive and egregious than in the the past. Don't be blinded by the deception and bite on the bone they're throwing out for you or you'll miss the whole steak. This is the year to clean out all the excesses and abuses in these School Budgets and get the Big Reduction in the School tax rate that's long overdue.
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