OC BOARD OF EDUCATION APPROVES TAX INCREASE

On Thursday evening, August 26, 2010 the Oldham County Board of Education, as expected, voted to raise the property tax by 2 cents per hundred dollars valuation which amounts to a 2.99% increase in the property tax. Oldham County already had one of the highest property tax rates in the state.

The Board increased the tax rate despite having eight million dollars ($8,000,000) in the contingency fund. I expect that the board is in much better financial condition than the average family in Oldham County. But then the average family cannot just take money whenever it wants to do so.

Voting for the tax increase was Kevin Woosley, Joyce Fletcher, Larry Dodson, and Jennifer Jones. Opposing the tax increase was Walt Schumm. I find the votes of two of these members to be very interesting. Kevin Woosley’s wife, Melanie Woosley, is a member of the LaGrange City Council and recently opposed the budget presented to the council by LaGrange Mayor Elsie Carter. Melanie Woosley was in favor of a more conservative budget and in the past has voted to reduce taxes. Why then, would her husband want to raise the taxes of everyone in the county? My question is, does Melanie Woosley just want to give the Mayor grief or is Kevin Woosley afraid to stand up to the superintendent of the Oldham County school district, Paul Upchurch? I have been around the Woosleys at several city council meetings and have listened to both of them address the city council. I always believed that they spoke with virtually one voice.

Then we have Larry Dodson who at the time he ran for office stated to me that he was opposed to tax increases. He has even chastised the county fiscal court for raising fees and increasing the insurance premium tax. Don’t misunderstand me, I was opposed to all fee and tax increases but it just doesn’t seem right that Dodson was so critical of the fiscal court but did not seem to have a problem with raising the property tax rate for the schools.

It is not hard to understand why the members of the school board are not responsive to the public. There are two members up for reelection this year and both are unopposed. Frankly, the job pays next to nothing and carries a lot of responsibility. You would think though, that a county that prides itself in its education would be able to field some opposition to every incumbent. The real problem is that the people are happy as long as someone keeps telling them that they have the greatest school system in the state.

I have attended many school board meetings and it has always been obvious to me that the superintendent runs everything. That was also apparent at this meeting as the superintendent made the recommendation for the tax rate. I realize that a board hires someone to run the school system but the board is ultimately responsible for the actions of the superintendent.

Another interesting thing happened at the board meeting on Thursday evening. Each person who wanted to address the board was given five minutes to speak. I was one of the people who signed up to speak. Knowing that the building fund money cannot be commingled with the administrative money I asked the board if they could cut the building fund tax rate to reduce the impact of the tax increase for the general fund. I did not receive an answer to my question. As everyone knows the board has been buying a lot of property for future schools even though the schools are not overcrowded at this time and enrollment is not increasing. One might say that the board has been spending money like a drunken sailor except that a drunken sailor spends his own money – not yours and mine. Reducing one rate while raising the other would appear to be a sensible solution to their alleged problem. You can bet that the board will never reduce a tax rate though.

However, excuse me for digressing. Shortly after I began to speak I stated that I was bothered by the fact that a board member wanted to have his tax liability reduced but wanted to increase mine. Superintendent Upchurch decided at that point that I was criticizing a board member and that was not allowed. Therefore, he told me to stop speaking. Another example of who was running the show as Upchurch was giving the orders even though it was a Board of Education meeting. I quickly took notice that the chairwoman of the board, Joyce Flethcer, was not in charge. Not wanting to create a disturbance and distract from the other speakers I sat down. However, I can assure Mr. Upchurch that he will never stop me from speaking at another board meeting. I will totally ignore anything that he has to say. If he is not happy with that, we can discuss it in federal court. His presence is not necessary to have a board meeting.

In summary, I was not surprised that the board passed the tax increase. I had spoken with Larry Dodson earlier in the week about the proposed tax increase and he told me that the money was needed to hire more teachers and to give the staff a raise. That was reiterated by Upchurch at the meeting. Moreover, Dodson stated to me that Jefferson County had raised their rate by 29% as though that justified Oldham County raising its rate. The fact is that Jefferson County did not raise their rate by 29% but rather by a similar amount to Oldham County. This is not the first time that Mr. Dodson has appeared to confused about the facts.

It is worth mentioning that nobody that spoke was in favor of the tax increase. John Black spoke but he did not take a position on the issue. He was simply trying to ride the fence and to convince someone to vote for him. I might add that I stayed around for a few minutes after the meeting and listened to some of the crowd talk to each other. Judging from their comments, Black did not win any votes. Sorry John but that is the way I saw it.