SMSD cries wolf: feigning poverty day after walking on $1 million in taxes. Did they violate KOMA? Can Steve Howe subpoena their Ouija boards??

SM Schools --you can't act all rich on Wednesday, then file an amicus brief with the Kansas Supreme Court the next day, claiming poverty.

SM is talking out of both sides of its mouth.

So Wed. at 7:30am, the SMSD met.  The public was not allowed to speak.  And the hoped for moment, when someone dared to stand up to Ed Eilert's shenanigans and deceits, and refused to hand over $1 million in rightful property taxes to the county--for the purpose of funding Recreational Welfare: a FREE community center for PV--at the expense of every taxpayer in JoCo.

I was proud of Cindy Neighbor and Patty Mach, two board members, for even DARING to suggest ths goofy "reverse TIF" for a car dealer, was, as Commissioner Michael Ashcraft of Olathe admitted on PVPost.com, "a bad deal for SM Schools".  After all, the school board members, who work for free, are elected to protect our property values.  Not kiss up to Ed Eilert and his buddies.

It's not just to provide good schools for those of us who have kids.  But also to protect our single biggest investments, our homes.  And when our schools fail to compete with Blue Valley, we can easily lose $20,000 when we go to sell our homes.

But alas: this was the first round.  And when it came time to vote, there was no vote!  So, if the public's business must be conducted in public, then exactly how did Superintendent Jim Hinson discern that there were insufficient votes to even HOLD a vote, to possibly VETO the TIF?  And why is he so afraid of a vote, on the record?

Over the past week, before the vote, did he and the BOCC and the panicked Mayor Laura Wassmer of PV and the school board members all communicate using their district-issued Ouija Boards?

Gosh, we know emails are fair game.  Is ESP via Ouija board a violation of the KOMA?  Can DA Steve Howe subpoena every Ouija board hidden behind the librarian's desk there at every SM school?  (We knew about giving a tablet or a laptop to every student in September.  These Ouija's somehow slipped past our attention.)


The deets of the amicus brief are all covered on PVPost.com, which has done an excellent job, as usual, of reporting.  And Tonyskansascity saw merit and linked to it--for which we are grateful.

Click here to read PVPost story re amicus brief, feigning poverty

SM School District: It's not nice to fool the Kansas Supreme Court.  If you can walk away from TIF's, then maybe you don't really need more funding from the state of Kansas or us taxpayers.

This was just Round 1.  The taxpayers lost.  Cindy Neighbor and Patty Mach get it.  Hooray for them.  Now we need a few more to wake up.  In about two months, the SMSD will actually FORMULATE a policy on TIF's.  Hopefully, they will Just.Say.No.  Especially to Recreational Welfare.

Personally, it doesn't take a policy or being a Rhodes scholar to be able to make a sound financial decision.  And represent the people who put you there.  Or to be consistent in one's messages, to the car dealers and the courts.  So I am disappointed in our school board.

But then, (I was a teacher in a private school), we must remember:public education was never designed to promote critical thinking.  It was officially intended and still serves one purpose for a better work force of compliant workers: Public education teaches kids to shut up, walk in a straight line--and all hold hands.  Apparently, the SM school board got an A on learning that lesson.

PV's mayor Laura Wassmer advocates RECREATIONAL WELFARE at Meadowbrook: the only free community center in JoCo: Demands SM Schools lower our property values and boost Blue Valley's.

Oh brother. PV's new mayor, Laura Wassmer is urging residents to lobby the SM Schools before the big vote to veto the Meadowbrook TIF Wednesday night. And get her preposterous spin: calling SM Schools need to collect property tax to keep competitive with Blue Valley Schools a "short term concern"? That is insulting logic. Where did Welfare Queen Wassmer learn reasoning? Hopefully not in a classroom in a Shawnee Mission School. The fact is this: The citizens of Prairie Village are now being lobbied by Ron Shaffer, their former mayor, now BOCC Commissioner, who is trying to deliver the bacon, millions of dollars of JoCo tax dollars, to provide PV with a FREE community center. That is RECREATIONAL WELFARE. 

No other community got a free community center paid for by ALL of JoCo taxpayers. Not Shawnee, not Lenexa, not even the big dog, OP, altho they are getting a stupid one room yoga studio inside the $32 million King Louie, (we paid $4.5 million for the ugly asbestos filled building and a year later it appraised at $430,000.) which is seven blocks south of the functional OP community center, Matt Ross.

Our schools protect our property values.
So it doesn't matter one whit if you have kids.
Your home is your biggest single asset.

A rec center with subsidized day care COMPETES with private industry, which is well capable of offering yoga or pilates classes and day care.
If you want the economy to improve, (so your kids and grandkids can get a job and move out of your back bedroom there in PV!) then stop allowing your governmental lackies to transfer private tasks to public tax financed efforts.

SM Schools should STOP allowing businesses to demand TIF's.
The Meadowbrook TIF is a phony head fake--pretend the tax is for the county not the car dealer, when it is just an account transfer.
By one vote, your inept JoCo Commission, including Ron Shaffer, allowed the VanTrust car dealer to set an inflated price, sans appraisal.
And because the car dealer is building things that don't generate much property tax,
the TIF is phony, because it will likely never be paid off.
It's a gift disguised as an incentive.

So like a Trojan horse, but now with 8 cylinders and 350 HP, VanTrust is muscling its way into NE JoCo to build what they want,
on the GOOD land, while sticking the county with the worse half, the inside, in need of a giant detention pond,
and then using former mayors and Welfare Queen Laura Wassmer to brand it as "long term good"
and now trying to guilt trip the SM Schools into taking it in the shorts.

PV Mayor Laura Wassmer wonders:  Where do I sign?
To get SM schools to give $12 million of our PV property taxes away?
Forget your declining resale values.   I want my name on a brass plaque
at my new Meadowbrook Recreational Welfare Center!  

Personally, I think if PV wants a community center, their residents should pay for it, and not accept RECREATIONAL WELFARE from the rest of us in Johnson County.

I think the SM School Board should man up and demand their fair share of property taxes. Period. And if you agree, and are getting to that point where you will want to sell your home, you will realize, you don't want to have to lower your selling price by $20,000 to compete with a homebuyer who believes they absolutely must move to the Blue Valley School district...for the RESALE VALUE.

So, PV taxpayers, it's your call.

What is more important? YOUR resale value of your home? Or dressing in your yoga pants to go to the Meadowbrook Welfare Rec Centerin PV instead of 30 other private health clubs?

Read more on KcmoPost.com

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