Raising Scores, Stabilizing Taxes

Even, maybe especially, during a recession, people want to see results.

Here they are:


In the three years since I have been on the Board, combined verbal, math, and written portion SAT scores have risen a remarkable 70 points! I give full credit for this achievement to the students who have worked hard and used the tools and environment we have created for them to their best advantage.






At the same time, we have managed to stabilize property taxes. You will note in the graph below that in the three years before I joined the Board, the school portion of your property tax bill increased over 11%. The first budget I worked on in 2008 raised taxes just one half of one percent, an accomplishment that was repeated in 2009.




How did we accomplish this? By judiciously using increased state aid in 2008 and 2009 for non-recurring capital improvements and tax relief, we were able to avoid an unsustainable expansion of our services. Even with a proposed tax increase in 2010 of 3.5% - due to the sudden loss of $6 million in current and expected state aid - the total tax increase for the three year period will come to 4.5%, considerably less than half the increase the prior three years.