“It seems that if you trust your gut without ever feeding your gut any facts or news or contrary opinions, if you keep your gut on a steady diet of grandiosity, ignorance, sycophants, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, those snap decisions can be ruinous.”
This was a quote from the June 1, 2008, New York Times op-ed piece titled Cult of Deception by columnist Maureen Dowd. (Note: Free registration to the Times online may be required to view the op-ed article.)
Maybe you thought it was from man-on-the-street interview of Coeur d’Alene residents commenting about the decision-making practices of our Mayor and City Council, the School District 271 administrators and trustees, or the North Idaho College administrators and trustees.
It wasn’t, but it could have been.
Public need is not driving the decisions. Ego and greed are driving the decisions. In her column in today’s CDA Press, President Bell of NIC admits that they are using student tuition money to buy the Education Corridor:
Funny, but I thought tuition money was supposed to go toward education, not development? She also admits that they still don’t know the details of this gut purchase, and admits this:
Question: Are they leaders or are they representatives? What happens when the “leaders” march one way and those who they are supposed to be leading don’t march at all?
Comment by Dan — June 1, 2008 @ 9:17 am
I noticed she said the board “debated the matter extensively”. Debated? A more correct characterization would be. “the board reached a consenses. There was never any discussions of opposite opinions by the board, ie. debate, that I am aware of. The board on several occiasons presented their plans and listened to opinions from the public which if opposed were ignored because they had already decided to take foregone taxes. So the contentious issues still remain to be debated, one of which is, does the college have the authority to use property tax money, including that portion of the “fund balance” that Dr. Bell refers to as “local funds” to purchase property that will be for the construction and use by the 4 year institutions of higher education, for their programs? Are Kootenai County Taxpayers now a funding souirce for state institutions? Legislators: Is this legal???
Comment by Gary Ingram — June 1, 2008 @ 10:08 am
I envision the continuation of accumulating “foregone money funds” held by taxpayers in their non existent personal saving account and using this money for construction of buildings. Perhaps the College should try to find a tax free savings system for the poor taxpayer who will periodically be taxed on money they have been already taxed on.(withdrawals from IRA’s) This city is going to suck the mallow right out of retiree’s nest egg. They will make the cost of college too high for the locals and will have to import out of staters to fill the 4 year institution that was suppose to be a junior community college. God help us…THIS IS A SCANDAL!
IT IS TIME FOR A GROUND SWELL TO GET RID OF FOREGONE TAXES..IF WE CAN’T STOP THE COLLEGE, WE CAN CUT OFF THEIR SYSTEM OF OPPRESSION!!!! That is a rally I will attend and carry a banner to…”NO MORE FOREGONE TAXES!!!!!” “No more oppression of the little guy”
Comment by Mama Bear — June 1, 2008 @ 2:02 pm
Your wish may come true, Mama Bear. I’m working on a post on that topic…
Comment by Dan — June 1, 2008 @ 2:39 pm
Great minds must think alike. Follow the money. The board’s sense of entitlement to OUR foregone taxes ia obscene. If we can cut off their public piggy bank via getting rid of the foregone tax law the citizens may get a little control over these boards.
Comment by Mama Bear — June 1, 2008 @ 3:57 pm
When I studied accounting, “Fund Balance” was not a cash account. Fund Balance is the difference between what one owns (assets) and what one owes (debts). In the business world, we would call it “Net Worth,” “Retained Earnings,” or “Net Assets.”
Fund Balance is still not a cash account but the power elites who say we’ll pay for the education corridor with “Fund Balance” are attempting to fool the gullible public so it will THINK NIC’s fund balance is an asset called cash.
Comment by foudre — June 1, 2008 @ 9:49 pm
I prefer to say that Fund Balance is “profit.” It’s not, of course. But it is money accumulated from year to year, money not spent. It’s technically illegal in that the money is not assigned a line item in the budget. It exists off-budget. The authority for Fund Balance is not found in the Idaho Constitution or Statutes. Yet most taxing entities keep it.
In CdA, the Mayor and City Council referred to the Fund Balance as their “Rainy Day Fund” when they transferred $3,000,000 to the Kroc Center via the Parks Foundation.
The total of all the fund balance accounts in all the taxing entities in Idaho is HUGE. I forget the exact figure, but it was millions upon millions of dollars. That’s taxpayer money that the taxing entities sit on. What do they spend it on? Our Mayor would say, “Opportunities.”
I would prefer that they use the Fund Balance as a base to form the next year’s budget. But that would be like giving the money back to the taxpayer. Until we elect people into office who do that, our officials will have Fund Balance available for Opportunities galore!
Comment by Dan — June 1, 2008 @ 10:40 pm