Trego's Mountain Ear

Thinking of my many political choices, I remembered the ninth beatitude – the one that can’t be found in the bible: “Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not know disappointment.”  I decided to look up the phrase, and found that the first author credited with it was Alexander Pope.  I also found that I didn’t have the quotation quite right – which is normal operating procedure.  Somehow a lot of quotations improve in my memory.

It fits well with politics – when you expect nothing from a politician, he/she cannot disappoint you.  Unfortunately, I continue to vote for a candidate that at least offers a possibility of voting for my interests – so I continue to know disappointment. 

I’ve been disappointed by my State Senator and my State Representative – both of whom voted to make Trego taxpayers pay tuition for students who choose to attend school in nearby districts.  It wouldn’t be unfair – except the lion’s share of our school taxes go to Helena, where a small portion is parsed back to the district to make for equalization.  The taxes we send to Helena follow the students as the state sends those dollars to the varying school districts based on a formula involving ANB – average number belonging. 

So the state taxes all landowners for education, puts the money in a pot, then doles the money out to school districts based on their enrollment.  That was assessed at 77.9 mills last time around, with a second round of taxes at 17.1 mills to make up for the commissioners not taxing enough.  It’s listed as the state school levy, and is the largest single levy on the tax bill at 95 mills.

The levy that the local district keeps is the Elementary General Levy – last time around it was 31.97 mills – roughly a third of the State School Levy.  Now that levy is assessed tuition for students who go to school outside their home district.

So we’re going to have to take the tuition out of the Elementary General Levy.  First we’ve been taxed 95 mills for equalization, and the portion the schools get from those funds is assessed based on students attending – whether the students attend in their home district or not.  This year, Trego’s school board will be looking at raising the Elementary General Levy by somewhere on the order of ten percent to cover the tuition to Whitefish and Eureka.

So I am disappointed in Mike Cuffe and Neil Durum.  I suspect they just voted party-line on something that they unquestioningly accepted as a good idea – without bothering to ask folks on Trego’s school board what this would do to their community.  Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall not know disappointment.

Thank heaven Neil has a Democrat opponent this fall.  He may have been part of a large group who will be forcing me to vote to raise taxes on my neighbors – but I will vote responsibly this November and mark the box that isn’t associated with his name.  Politicians who vote to shaft their constituents should not expect a second vote.