On The Soapbox
It's not often that taxpayers are
allowed to have a say in tax burdens. The Clayberry Excess Levy
is one of those exceptions to the rule. What the Pentagon is
asking for is for struggling Clayonians to cough up an extra
$2.25+ million over the next five years.
Excess Levy Election day is Saturday Jan 29th. Polling places are listed over on the ADVISORY page of this site.
The Shell Game: As far back as the Jim Dawson administration and continuing to Kenneth Tanner's rule at the Pentagon, important stuff was kept hush hush. Here's our look back...
In the good old days, county school administrators were not required to report all the debts. Each year they took the debts, added on new debts, and buried them over in some unheard of account. Secret debt loads got so extreme, the rules changed in Charleston and all of a sudden we all found out, Clayberry school system was around $2.2M in the red. It was so bad, State Ed folks told us, you have to get that debt down or we will come in and take you over.
Living up to their word and as we kept living beyond our means, the State started demanding monthly reports that showed lower debt loads. It was Superintendent Tanner that did the cutting and got the system ahead by 3/4 of a million or so in surplus. To do that KT made the tough choices to cut contract bus drivers, teachers, and support staff.
With the now public $2.2M debt in plain view, it was Linkypoo that made a strong effort to implement an Excess Levy on some of the poorest taxpayers in the State. His first effort failed by around 37 votes. On the very night of the loss, he stood in the County Clerk's office and told RB Legg, Let's try it again. We can get it to pass. What he was really saying was: let's twist every employee's arm and get them to vote Yes
It did but just barely. There was even an election recount to make sure the votes were properly counted.
So mismanaged during the Linky administration, vendors refused to extend us credit. It was cash on the barrel head or forget it.
To get it passed, Linky twisted about every arm in the county.
Down at H E White, he told parents: IF you support this Levy, we will not close your school (again).
He told bus drivers, your jobs will be safe
He leaned on retired cooks, teachers, with his cookbook giveaways.
He brought private citizens into his office on company time and tried the arm twisting tactic. When Linky tried his magic on the Ace Cub Reporter, the guy's response was, I won't give you another penny even if it fed every monkey on earth.
That was a long time ago but you need to be reminded of the hypocrisy . The Pentagon hid their huge debt load and grow it annually until they were forced to let the public know the truth.
Today things are different.
Today the Pentagon is a cash cow setting on millions of unspent COVID dollars. Last week, the Charleston Gazette reported another $1billion of COVID funds to be divided amongst the 55 counties.
Supplementing Failure Down below is one of the glossy, colorful postcards mailed out to influence you. Look at those figures. Note the dates are from a time when the current Superintendent wasn't even in power.
When they come around and tell ya your child is getting a world class edumacation, that's BS. The Schooldigger website ranks Clay High as the 100th worst of the 113 high schools in the state.
Voting Yes on the 29th only means, you are happy with a pee poor school system in County Clay. Why do they need even more when they're sitting on millions? Truth is, they don't need more.
Another note on the impact on your wallet.
County Assessor Davis sent out notices the first week of Jan stating, your property taxes will be going up At Least 10%. Add the Excess Levy on top of the at least 10% increase, and the pinch will be felt by most.
Levy votes are held in January with hopes of a huge snow/ice/sleet blocking voters from marking ballots. The last time the Levy was on the ballot (2017) only 805 voters cast ballots. The Excess Levy passed 476 to 329. In 2017, the bulk of the no votes came during early voting.. we think. Early voters stood at 347.
The Pentagon arm twisting continues right thru Election Day, Jan 29th.
Why not read the ballot before your mark it. At the top, the "call" tells you everything that the $$$ will be used for. Look at it and you will read, all those items are already paid for from state funds. With the Levy covering those costs, all the state funds can be used as the Pentagon darn well pleases.
Supporting the Excess Levy is a nod toward business as usual and continuing the pitiful secret practices that got us in trouble years ago. Do the right thing and make your vote count.
AW
Excess Levy Election day is Saturday Jan 29th. Polling places are listed over on the ADVISORY page of this site.
The Shell Game: As far back as the Jim Dawson administration and continuing to Kenneth Tanner's rule at the Pentagon, important stuff was kept hush hush. Here's our look back...
In the good old days, county school administrators were not required to report all the debts. Each year they took the debts, added on new debts, and buried them over in some unheard of account. Secret debt loads got so extreme, the rules changed in Charleston and all of a sudden we all found out, Clayberry school system was around $2.2M in the red. It was so bad, State Ed folks told us, you have to get that debt down or we will come in and take you over.
Living up to their word and as we kept living beyond our means, the State started demanding monthly reports that showed lower debt loads. It was Superintendent Tanner that did the cutting and got the system ahead by 3/4 of a million or so in surplus. To do that KT made the tough choices to cut contract bus drivers, teachers, and support staff.
With the now public $2.2M debt in plain view, it was Linkypoo that made a strong effort to implement an Excess Levy on some of the poorest taxpayers in the State. His first effort failed by around 37 votes. On the very night of the loss, he stood in the County Clerk's office and told RB Legg, Let's try it again. We can get it to pass. What he was really saying was: let's twist every employee's arm and get them to vote Yes
It did but just barely. There was even an election recount to make sure the votes were properly counted.
So mismanaged during the Linky administration, vendors refused to extend us credit. It was cash on the barrel head or forget it.
To get it passed, Linky twisted about every arm in the county.
Down at H E White, he told parents: IF you support this Levy, we will not close your school (again).
He told bus drivers, your jobs will be safe
He leaned on retired cooks, teachers, with his cookbook giveaways.
He brought private citizens into his office on company time and tried the arm twisting tactic. When Linky tried his magic on the Ace Cub Reporter, the guy's response was, I won't give you another penny even if it fed every monkey on earth.
That was a long time ago but you need to be reminded of the hypocrisy . The Pentagon hid their huge debt load and grow it annually until they were forced to let the public know the truth.
Today things are different.
Today the Pentagon is a cash cow setting on millions of unspent COVID dollars. Last week, the Charleston Gazette reported another $1billion of COVID funds to be divided amongst the 55 counties.
Supplementing Failure Down below is one of the glossy, colorful postcards mailed out to influence you. Look at those figures. Note the dates are from a time when the current Superintendent wasn't even in power.
When they come around and tell ya your child is getting a world class edumacation, that's BS. The Schooldigger website ranks Clay High as the 100th worst of the 113 high schools in the state.
Voting Yes on the 29th only means, you are happy with a pee poor school system in County Clay. Why do they need even more when they're sitting on millions? Truth is, they don't need more.
Another note on the impact on your wallet.
County Assessor Davis sent out notices the first week of Jan stating, your property taxes will be going up At Least 10%. Add the Excess Levy on top of the at least 10% increase, and the pinch will be felt by most.
Levy votes are held in January with hopes of a huge snow/ice/sleet blocking voters from marking ballots. The last time the Levy was on the ballot (2017) only 805 voters cast ballots. The Excess Levy passed 476 to 329. In 2017, the bulk of the no votes came during early voting.. we think. Early voters stood at 347.
The Pentagon arm twisting continues right thru Election Day, Jan 29th.
Why not read the ballot before your mark it. At the top, the "call" tells you everything that the $$$ will be used for. Look at it and you will read, all those items are already paid for from state funds. With the Levy covering those costs, all the state funds can be used as the Pentagon darn well pleases.
Supporting the Excess Levy is a nod toward business as usual and continuing the pitiful secret practices that got us in trouble years ago. Do the right thing and make your vote count.
AW
