Lafayette Parish voters have a chance to see for themselves Monday night what’s at the heart of a Lafayette Parish School Board property tax proposal going before voters Oct. 22.
With less than two weeks until voters cast their vote for or against a 25-mill property tax that would fund more than half a billion dollars of critical school repairs, new construction and maintenance, the school system is opening every school in the district from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday to offer tours and information about the facilities master plan.
The master plan, finalized by the School Board in 2010, calls for the replacement of seven schools: Northside and Lafayette high schools, L.J. Alleman Middle School, Carencro Heights, Green T. Lindon, Katharine Drexel and J.W. Faulk elementary schools. It also outlines new additions to several other schools, as well as maintenance upgrades districtwide.
And as election day inches closer, advocates on both sides of the tax prop can be heard loud and clear through websites, radio spots and other mediums.
Invest in our Children’s Future, a political action committee formed by a grassroots education group, has a website laying out its case for the new tax, which includes a 10-minute League of Women Voters video showing the condition of schools.
The Tea Party of Lafayette acknowledges on its website that the proposal would equate to a roughly 29 percent tax increase. But in a radio spot that aired on KPEL 96.5 Monday morning, TPL Lafayette coordinator Joyce Linde told listeners that a yes vote would “almost double” what residents currently pay in property taxes every year. Other TPL literature has stated that the tax increase would be almost 75 percent.
But TPL was accurate Monday morning when it reminded voters that the school board has already approved a $17-$18 million contact with CSRS Inc. of Baton Rouge for the master plan’s implementation. As noted Aug. 23 in The Independent ("Marketing the Mark-up"), the board approved the contract two months before it’s even known whether the money will be secured. CSRS is the same firm that created the master plan, for which the school board paid more than $900,000.
As also reported Sept. 21 in The Independent’s “Dearth and Taxes,” Lafayette Parish voters pay less school taxes than other parishes comparable in size, and would still be doing so even if the tax passes.
For more on the master plan, visit the school board’s master plan website.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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