Letter: Offers school budget plan

Dear Editor,

Hudson School District Superintendent Mary Bowen-Eggebraaten is not living up to her commitments.

In 2006, the superintendent asked the public to pass a $12 million referendum to build River Crest Elementary School. To entice the public to pass the referendum, the superintendent stated in this newspaper that the district would designate an additional $3.5 million from its fund balance for the construction of the school.

Flash forward to 2009, when the school district received a $1.8 million one-time payment when the St. Croix Business Park closed as a Tax Incremental Financing District (TIF). The district applied $900,000 of this to the 2008-09 budget to reduce the amount of the fund balance used to build River Crest. Therefore, the district is not living up to its commitment to the public to apply $3.5 million from the fund balance to build River Crest.

In the meantime, the 2009-10 budget is short by $700,000. If the $900,000 from the closing of the TIF was applied to the 2009-10 budget, then the budget would balance without the need for any tax increases.

The superintendent, however, has chosen to break another commitment instead. This commitment is to her employees. The superintendent wants to lay off employees and freeze their salaries to balance the 2009-10 budget.

The district should reverse its decision to apply the $900,000 TIF payment to the construction of River Crest and, instead, apply the money to the 2009-10 budget. If the $900,000 was applied to the 2009-10 budget, the budget would balance without the need for increased taxes and without the need for employee layoffs and/or a salary freeze.

The superintendent should start living up to her commitments. Otherwise, the district is essentially requiring its employees to accept layoffs and a salary freeze to fund the construction of River Crest.

Tags: opinion, hudson, letter, school, budget, reduction