Tuesday, April 6, 2010

BV Announces less cuts........but how?


Turnout will be miserable because there really isn't that much to motivate the average voter in Johnson County.
So today....according to the Blue Valley School District 2+2=5?


The fact that many positions are uncontested some might suggest means that nobody cares but does the whole anti incumbent attitude extend to local.....almost micro politics?


School Boards and City Council positions are generally non-paid, or so minimally paid it doesn't even matter, and so to consider that type of service you really do have to care about your community or have a serious ax to grind. I'd say most are devoted community servants.


This whole budget problem with Blue Valley gave me a new respect for those people serving and I've paid more attention to JOCO city hall issues since I've started the blog and I can tell you those people serve without much reward either.


The Blue Valley School board didn't cut music and sports for now but somehow only cut $6 million of $9 million they said they needed to cut. They did increase revenue by raising fees which seemed logical. I wish they would take more seriously the idea brought forward by the KCK school district and cut non teacher's making over $67,000. Pay levels could be agreed to be reinstated over time over a few years when things turn around. It makes me think possibly the board and staff are too close if this hasn't even been discussed. Of course it is possible that it has already. I'd be interested in knowing what that number would look like. They were pretty good at showing us what cutting other things meant in terms of savings.


Nobody likes to have their pay cut. For many of us our pay is directly determined by how we perform and a slow economy almost certainly means less cash. Many of their constituents have already taken pay cuts...........if not lost their job altogether. I'm not suggesting their performance was bad. I'm just suggesting everyone do their part.


In today's KC Star board member Tony Thill said, "Everyone is willing to step forward and take a piece of this". Really?


How can the figure needed to cut move by over $3 million? How can we go from a $9 million shortfall to only needing to cut $6 million? When does the other shoe fall?


I can't figure out if coming up short of the needed cuts represented courage or non-feasance on the board's part.


At any rate.....I'm left with more questions than answers this morning. I'm going to have to look into this a little bit more. Maybe it is just that the KC Star didn't give all the facts.
Does 2+2=5 or at least $6 million equal $9 million?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I get it. What is the answer? Do they cut more later?

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure but I'm glad they didn't cut music. Save the Music!!!