The $39.99 million bond for Tri-City United Schools was rejected by voters in the Nov. 4 election despite $7,982,004 being covered by the state Ag2School Tax Credit.
Tax impact on a $400,000 residential property would have been between $10.12-$10.66 a month, generally replacing a couple bonds that would be falling off over the next few years and not raising the current amount people were being taxed by much.
“With such a low tax impact, I think the yes voters didn’t show up. The people who were no’s, were very quiet and showed up at the last second,” said TCU Superintendent Kevin Babcock. “I appreciate everyone that went out and voted. Our numbers weren’t necessarily low in comparison to past.”
The three precincts voted in total 926 (45.98%) in favor and 1,088 (54.02%) opposed, a difference of just 162 votes.
Lonsdale voted to pass with 311 in favor and 269 opposed.
Montgomery and Le Center both voted not to pass the single item bond question. Montgomery voted 350 in favor and 452 opposed, and Le Center voted 265 in favor and 367 opposed.
It's time to send in your Letters to Santa by Tuesday, Dec. 2, to the Montgomery Messenger! Email them to editor@montgomerymnnews.com or via U.S. Mail at Montgomery Messenger, c/o Santa, 310 South 1st St, Montgomery, MN 56069.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, at his Oct. 8 visit to TCU High School, said “Failure to not vote is not an act of rebellion, it’s an act of surrender. When you turn 18, you get formal political power. If you leave it on the table, you’re losing something and give a reason for people to ignore you.”
Babcock isn’t sure of what the school board will do. “We will obviously reflect and send out a survey to all of our potential voters to get some input from them, and then see what we need to do going forward,” he said. “There was a lot of positivity about it. It just didn’t happen at the polls.”
“It was really spot on for what was needed. Obviously, the board could go with less and have tax impact even a little bit less. They could go more, which we certainly could use. I think we settled on a pretty good sweet spot,” said Babcock. “I think it’s just a matter of how we get the information out more-so moving forward. Probably have some more sites for absentee early voting. I think that would be huge too. We didn’t have that many absentee ballots come in. A few things we could do a little bit different as well. Again, I think it’s just getting people to understand that you have to come to vote.”
He continued, “The good thing about TCU is we’ve never gone out for an operating (levy). This was just based on making sure we keep our facilities up, like you would at your own house. Obviously, we’re going to remain committed to safe, modern, and high-quality learning environments for our students. I mean, that’s our number one goal here. We’re going to welcome feedback, and we’re going to continue to look at how we can continue to address our facilities. At the same time, the overall success of our students is our priority.”
New Prague levy
New Prague Area School District’s levy vote passed with a rather large margin. The final tally was 3,927 to 2,049 (65.71% in favor, 34.29% opposed).
In comparison to Tri-City United School’s bond, voters said yes to an almost $20 a month increase in taxes on a residential property valued at $400,000 for New Prague’s levy.