January 16, 2019
Senator responds to legacy fund idea
By JILL DENNING GACKLE
State Senator Howard Anderson, representing District 8 of Turtle Lake, isn’t a fan of the Garrison school superintendent’s idea of using Legacy Funds for building improvements.
Anderson recently sent a letter to Superintendent Nick Klemisch that said, “I am going to be honest and say that I think it is unlikely that the legislature will vote to spend principal of the Legacy Fund for any purpose except a real emergency. The constitutional measure says we need a two thirds vote and cannot spend more than 15 percent even in an emergency case.”
Klemisch is a proponent of using Legacy Funds or other funding sources to help schools make improvements to aging buildings or to pay down existing bonds. His plan is that if the Legacy fund reaches a designated level funds would be distributed to schools statewide.
About Anderson’s letter, Klemisch said, “Sen. Howard Anderson does bring up many valid points regarding both the Common Schools Trust Fund and the Legacy Fund. However, I’d argue the ability for local to make greater funding decisions were minimized greatly when our levies were capped when state began their push for property tax relief. Upon doing so, state payments did greatly increase from the state level, but the relief is fading. A prime example of this would be the 12 mills that are no longer paid by the state for the Dept. of Health and Human Services and were then added to the county from this legislative session, thus, increasing our taxes.”
Anderson recently sent a letter to Superintendent Nick Klemisch that said, “I am going to be honest and say that I think it is unlikely that the legislature will vote to spend principal of the Legacy Fund for any purpose except a real emergency. The constitutional measure says we need a two thirds vote and cannot spend more than 15 percent even in an emergency case.”
Klemisch is a proponent of using Legacy Funds or other funding sources to help schools make improvements to aging buildings or to pay down existing bonds. His plan is that if the Legacy fund reaches a designated level funds would be distributed to schools statewide.
About Anderson’s letter, Klemisch said, “Sen. Howard Anderson does bring up many valid points regarding both the Common Schools Trust Fund and the Legacy Fund. However, I’d argue the ability for local to make greater funding decisions were minimized greatly when our levies were capped when state began their push for property tax relief. Upon doing so, state payments did greatly increase from the state level, but the relief is fading. A prime example of this would be the 12 mills that are no longer paid by the state for the Dept. of Health and Human Services and were then added to the county from this legislative session, thus, increasing our taxes.”
