School Districts want to raise your property taxes

[Anonymous]

From the article in the STATE..5/15/2005.........."The Richland 1 and Richland 2 school districts will go, "hat in hand"

"Hat in hand" ..indeed......To allow RD1 to set their own taxes without County Council approval would be insane....RD1 has no spending discipline.........

How much money is too much for RD1....consider the following:

RD1 MANAGEMENT SALARY OVERHEAD DATA
Superintendent $173,900
Deputy Super. 117,818
Asst to Deputy 99,053
Three Area Super. 113,127 each
Sr. Assoc. (2 positions) 217,600
Director 111 (4 positions in 04) 310,900
Exec. Dirs.(4 positions in 04) 379,500
Lead Principal 101,399

TOTAL Management OVERHEAD in 04 $1,739,553

Number of RD1 employees making $50,000 or more increased from 657 in 2003 to 802 .........145 positions or by 22 percent!
RD1 had about total all in budget (2004-05) which was $20 million higher than last year of about $345 million ($13,800/student/year) with a declining enrollment and less than 50% gets directly to the classroom!! To put that number in perspective……Private schools costs about $9,000/yr!


SAY NO TO RD1 RAISING PROPERTY TAXES UNLESS COUNTY COUNCIL APPROVES THE INCREASE!!!!!!!!!! [/b]

[Anonymous]

What's the going rate for a Superintendent? Heck I'll do it for $35k.
I gots my G.E.D.

Sometimes quality cost.

[Anonymous]

State paper says RD1 will pay $175,000 plus fringe...makes one wonder..............

[JimBo]

:fencing:
This topic really needs discussion. RD1 bond indebtedness will cost the RC tax payers over ONE BILLION $$$$

I love the Council Members comments; "we don't know anything or have the expertise to make the budget decisions." So turn it over to the professionals. (State Paper)

I agree with one comment, they don't have expertise to make budgeting decisions. Neither does RD1

Why not turn all the budget decisions over to ALL DEPARTMENTS? Sheriff, EMS, Fire Services etc..

We could take them (Council) of the payroll and save 100 grand just on their salaries and perks.

Plus save about 2 million is administrative overhead.

Pass this on to your friends in Richland County.

Thanks

[swampfox]

RD1 bond indebtedness will cost the RC tax payers over ONE BILLION $$$$

Let's not forget how that indebtedness came about.

In a referendum! The voters decided in favor of it.

You can blame the district for being inefficient, incompetent, whatever, but in this case they can't be blamed for being stupid.

[Anonymous]

"You can blame the district for being inefficient, incompetent, whatever, but in this case they can't be blamed for being stupid"

Agree...what RD1 did/paid in aquiring land for the new Dreher was almost criminal.........

[swampfox]

I'm not sure that you have to qualify that with "almost".

There was some public outcry about that mess for a while, but I thought not nearly enough.

I believe that I know one reason that the district, and politicians in general for that matter, know they can get away with almost anything is that the local media, including the State paper, decline to cover even their most outrageous excesses or even illegal activities.

Some believe that a South Carolina legislator could set up a meth lab on his desk in the House or Senate chambers and we'd never hear about it unless a reporter from Charlotte happened to be there. Remember the ABSCAM vote-selling case? It was in the Charlotte Observer for days before any Columbia media reported it.

[JimBo]

Swampfox, you hit that right on the head! We should just turn everything over to "The State Paper" Editorial page.

:toimonst: Taxpayers

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