Where’s the beef Tom?

Tonight I had a chance to review our School District staff’s budget presentation given at the August 25th Kirkwood School District tax rate hearing. Then, I compared those facts with the comments and the Mailbag letter in the August 29th Webster-Kirkwood Times from Tom Haenni. I have a challenge with the comments and actions of both Tom and Sarah Haenni at this meeting.

First, I have issue with the way Sarah carried herself with her comments at the hearing. Sarah went droning on for almost 9 minutes of a 60 minute hearing, with her grand thesis on the alleged twisting of facts by the Kirkwood School Board. I am still trying to figure out how Sarah even begins to think only her comments deserve taking up almost 15% of the scheduled hearing time? Where does she get off thinking only she is worthy of using that much time at the hearing? This is especially the case with such a packed room, full of other citizens in the District.

When she was told by the time moderator that she was at 6 minutes, her reply was she worked 2 hours on her speech and it needed to be said. What? Can she not count to 180 seconds then figure out how to get her point across in that time period with two hours to prepare? Hey, its called an egg-timer and it works real well to keep you on track. But, was getting a point across to our School Board really the objective? Or was it all just grandstanding for the crowd and hoping for a quote in one of the local papers?

Then, we have to take a look at Tom’s big beef with our School Board. His comments at the meeting and in the Mailbag letter criticized our School Board’s decision to not base the budget on a Tax Collection rate of 97%. He was quoted at the meeting as saying, “For five years, the district has been capturing over 97 percent of its taxes.”

But, just how much of a twisting of the facts was that by Tom?

The reality is 5 out of the last 6 years our School District realized an over 97% Tax Collection rate. For some reason Tom choose to ignore completely the fact that the Tax Collection Rate over the last 10 years has swung with some wide variance. It has gone from as high as 97.63% to as low as 91.35%. The average of these two numbers gives us a Tax Collection Rate of 94.49%. The average Tax Collection Rate over the last 10 years has been 95.33%.

Gee I wonder why our School Board smartly chose to use a more conservative 95% Tax Collection Rate rather than a short-sighted 97% Tax Collection Rate?

When I look at the facts I am compelled to ask one question … Where’s the beef Tom?

But, more importantly why did Tom who is such a critic of our School Board choose to ignore the facts regarding the other 5 years of lesser Tax Collection Rates? What is he trying to hide from his supporters? Why was he clearly twisting the facts to fit his short-sighted criticism of our School Board?

Then, Tom tries to take his show on the road with his letter in the Webster-Kirkwood Times. But, here again he plays his same tired set of cards. I can only suspect that they are Tarot cards since somehow Tom has gotten the ability to tell us the future. He says,

“By the time this letter is printed, the Kirkwood School Board will have most likely voted in the same blended tax rate as was used last year. When the more realistic collection rate of 97 percent is realized, Kirkwood will collect $1.5 million more in property taxes than was stated as needed this year on the tax rate hearing notice.”

Tom actually missed the mark since the School Board raised the blended rate by a whopping 0.0024 cents. Plus, I have to ask is it really a given that it is a “When” much less “realistic” that the “collection of 97 percent” will be “realized” based on the facts in the presentation given at the meeting? The reality is Tom does not know what the Tax Collection Rate will be, neither do I and neither does our School Board. Yet, it seems clear Tom thinks he has all the answers.

Finally, I do not have a problem with folks asking tough questions of our elected leaders. Or people speaking out with a point of view. But, I take issue when someone wants to accuse our elected leaders like the Haenni’s have our School Board for allegedly not being forthright with the facts, but then do the very thing they are accusing others of doing.

The Haenni’s arguments fall on deaf ears when they so blatantly twist the facts and act like they did at and since this last School Board meeting.

I hope the Haenni’s will appreciate this critique of their comments and actions, especially since they seem ready, willing and able to hand criticism out by the shovels full to our elected School Board members.

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