Does that headline sound silly to you? Me too. But the Journal Star’s editorial Tuesday argues just that. Instead of fully staffing Fire Station 11, we should spend that money on police protection, they said. “Firefighting and other emergency response are important, but every penny spent on reopening Fire Station 11 is one that won’t go to added police protection.”
Fire and police protection are both among the most essential, basic services a city can provide, and their funding comes pretty much exclusively from the city. So police and fire protection should not be pitted against each other for funding. Something is wrong in a city that can’t fully staff their fire stations and provide adequate police protection at the same time.
There must be other places where the city could cut truly unnecessary spending. (Fire protection is not what I would call “unnecessary.”)
This may sound like sour grapes, but the more I think about it, the more I question the money the city spends on District 150. Think about it. The school district is its own taxing body, and the city has gained nothing by trying to cooperate with the school board, so why are we sending them over a million dollars a year in operating, capital, and debt service support? The fire and police departments can’t tax the public directly for their needs, so it would seem to me that the city’s money would be better spent on fire and police instead of the school board.
If we have to start picking and choosing, I don’t know how the city could responsibly cut fire protection while still spending money on a school district that is essentially double-dipping our tax dollars.
Thanks for putting your finger on exactly what has been bugging me about this whole thing about the City coughing up money for the School District.
You’re absolutely right! The School District is its own taxing body. The City is responsible for basics such as fire and police protection, NOT for funding the school district’s wish list.
It is good that the City spends some money on District 150. It’s better than spending it on a private developer. It’s like this to me: The City is your house and Dist150 is like the garage you may have out back. You fix the house up and maintain it, yet you let the garage go. As a result, your property value decreases and the total value of your home is less. So, you invest in the garage and your home value improves. You may not like spending the money and may wish the garage was gone. Now if you give the money to say your neighbor, to fix his house, great! Your property might go up too, but then again, he may just take the money and leave and then you have a vacant building. (The developer) So, I rather have the city give to the Dist than to some baseball field, or underground parking deck so the richest company in the area can use it.
As for Police and Fire, maybe the city could save money by getting rid of all the fancy staff cars, the GPS system on city trucks (that have 2-way radios), go to Lowe’s and buy cheaper garbage cans, quit making TIF’s that rob taxing bodies and rarely do the area any good except again for some developer, stop paying council members until the city shows a positive balance, (we’ll see how many civic minded leaders stick around after that) including the part time Mayor, and stop planting stop lights every 500 ft. (OK, the last one is a joke)
Emtronics, I agree with your second paragraph, but your first paragraph is a false analogy. “School district” isn’t to “city” as “garage” is to “house.” As far as legal entities go, they’re peers or equals. So it’s more like one boy stealing another boy’s milk money.
Well I see the school district as an asset to this communiy and the City should be more active in its support to make sure it succeeds. If it fails, so goes the city. Maybe that is what I should have posted in the first place. After all, is that not why people leave this city instead of buying homes here, the schools?
Ever since Harry Whitaker has left 150 as its Supt., it has gone to pot; saywhat you will, his successors have all been liberal, socialistic thinking persons who have played the race card on us, and look where it has gotten us. The purpose of a school district and board is to teach, not raise children and provide adults with somethingto do in the evenings-forget that community crap and teach our kids right from wrong, how to read, write, spell and know the difference fromright and wrong.