The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Flin Flon School Board came under fire Wednesday from Mayor Dennis Ballard and a couple of taxpayers for not holding the line on local education taxes. "All around the world, everybody's cutting their budgets and traditionally from the school board I hear, 'We can't cut programs,'" the mayor told the trustees during the presentation of their proposed 2004-05 budget at Flin Flon City Hall. "You know what, I keep saying this, some time you're going to have to face the fact that some programs have to go," added the mayor, one of about 20 people on hand for the presentation. The board's proposed budget for next year calls for a five per cent increase to the special levy, the portion of school funding that comes from Flin Flon property taxes. The boost would net the division an extra $154,000. The City of Flin Flon is required by law to bill its taxpayers for any increases the division sets to the special levy. During the public presentation, Mayor Ballard made it clear that city council will no longer "eat" the special levy hikes as it has in the past and must now pass the raises onto the taxpayers. "If we ever get everything straight, there would be a system whereby we would go to the taxpayers for our (City) taxes and they would go for their (special levy) taxes," commented the mayor. See 'We' P.# Con't from P.# "When there's complaints about (the special levy increase), we (city council) get the complaints, and that just ain't fair," he added. Property taxes were clearly on the mind of one mother in the crowd, who told the trustees she may no longer be able to afford hers if the special levy continues to go up. Both she and Mayor Ballard expressed concern that the special levy has increased by 54.5 per cent since 1991. Superintendent of Schools Blaine Veitch agreed that the accumulated increase is substantial but pointed out that the the average special levy across the province went up nearly 72 per cent in the same time period. "I think the board is very conscious. They try to keep their costs down," said the superintendent. "They're consciously trying to keep the burden on the local taxpayer to a minimum." Debbie Bongfeldt, the division's secretary-treasurer, said the funding increases the division has been receiving from the province have not been enough to keep up with rising costs. A taxpayer and parent in the crowd called on the trustees to focus solely on teaching the students. "Why don't you stick with the core activity Ñ educating the kids," he stated. "Drop the bowling, drop the camping stuff, stop wasting money. We (taxpayers) are not a bottomless pit. Enough's enough." At another point, the taxpayer told the trustees he doesn't understand why the board wants to obtain provincial funding to build a new mechanics garage when one already exists at Many Faces Education Centre. "Don't you have a building where the armoury is?" he asked. "It's not a very good facility," replied Trustee Colleen McKee. "There's things in my life that aren't up to snuff, either, but I can't run around buying whatever I want," he shot back. Trustee McKee several times stressed the importance of hearing all concerns about potential budget cutbacks. She asked that people with such concerns offer suggestions as to how money might be saved. "I have a suggestion," said the taxpayer. "I know how HBMS does it. They bring in a consultant, they look around, they go chop, chop, chop." That prompted Trustee McKee to reiterate that "we have to decide as a community what we're willing to sacrifice" in terms of school expenditures. "Do we want larger classrooms then?" she asked. "Do we want larger teacher-student ratios, is that what we want? Do we want less facilities? Now that means closing a school. Now whose school do you want us to close? So these are the things that we need to hear from you." With regard to the idea of shutting down a school, Trustee Angela Simpson stated: "If you have extra room in another school, you're shutting down one facility, but you're not reducing teachers because those students are still there." Mayor Ballard told the trustees that they were elected to make tough decisions and added that they "will never get a consensus out there from the public" as far as what should be cut "because everybody wants something different."
