BusinessReport.com

Posted on October 23 at 3:49 p.m.

I would guess that if you ran a survey of the voters, most say they vote on the millage, but in reality are doing so because the people pushing the tax sell it on how much the average property owner (based on some dollar amount) will be paying.
I think there should be a stated number of mills and a cap on the revenue for all property taxes. Those of us that bought a house many years ago and have since retired from our jobs don't see the increase in value of our prperty until we sell it. We do see the increase in taxes (considerable a few years ago) and have to pay that out of our retirement income. Many retirement programs have a fixed amount of dollars that do not change each year. Yes, Social Security goes up a small amount if inflation goes up.
I also think there should be a sunset clause on all taxes that afer the intial time period the people pushing the tax need to be able to justify why that tax should stay on the books. Also, justify the product or services provide by that tax. Does the community still need that product or service? What has the cost of the product or service done over the life of the tax? Has the cost gone up drastically or are these folks stewards of our money? It should not be allowed to use the tax monies for anything other than the stated specific purpose in the proposal voted on by the public.
The roll forward aspect should be outlawed since it appears to be taxation without representation, though legal now for the reasons JR noted about voting for mileage or revenue.

Mickey Christensen

On Fury over taxes

Posted on September 23 at 8:21 p.m.

I agree with Superintendent Paul Pastorek and think this has to be a joke. Who in their right mind would agree that this represents what the school system is doing? Does the School Board count the scores of these "better" students twice then and in effect doubling the value they add to the system?
This just validates that our school system will not get better if the main focus is cooking the books. Look what happened to all the companies (Enron, etc.) that were cooking the books.
Get the focus on the real issue and that is upgrading the education the students should be getting and are not.
Mickey Christensen

On A numbers game

Posted on April 14 at 4:57 p.m.

One of the problems I ran in to a couple years ago, and I think it still could be problem, is the price of tickets out of BR versus New Orleans were significantly different. One agent told me that BR was much more because they did not have to compete with Southwest in BR. When a ticket is $700 versus $193, guess who gets the business.
Mickey Christensen

On Dogfight over B.R.

Posted on April 10 at 2:51 p.m.

Rolfe is on target with the above comments. Too many people must still have their fingers in the State's cash register to allow change to happen. We need major reforms to get out of the sewer and up on the road to success.
If the various unions are not willing to work for change that betters all of the citizens, then they should look at the condition of Michigan and how many jobs have been lost. This loss of jobs has created a real money crunch on the State government and very needed services are not available now. I don't remember the actual number, but something like one out of every four or five people is or has been unemployed in the last year. Many that are employed now are doing jobs that are considerably different than they were doing. A massive training program is being implemented to help 'retrain' many workers for a new career.
In Louisiana we need to train (and in many cases that is for true craft people, like plumbers, roofers, etc.) people to do meaningful work that society needs. Not all jobs can pay the top dollar, but do afford a comfortable living.
We need to wake up before all the manufacturing jobs are outsourced to foreign facilities. We can't exist as a service only country.
I am not sure what kind of management universities need. There are problems with nothing but academics running academic systems and a mix might be the best way given time to mature. When there is too much in-breeding, the speicies gets weaker.
Food for thought and it probably will generate some comments.
Mickey Christensen

On TOPS is for everyone

Posted on January 16 at 2:21 p.m.

In years past I spent a lot of time (about 10 years) working with the EBR School system. Granted this was when the system was under the control of a Federal Judge. I spent a lot of time helping develop and implement the High School for the Engineering Professions and other things. My son went to public schools after the first couple years. When my son was in high school, the parents had to force a tenure hearing for one person because the system would not correct the problem. This was a bad situation, but it got rid of a problem.
However, I quit working with the EBR School system because there was so much red tape to get anything done, no desire to think out of the box, and lack of support after projects were completed. I could list many items to support this, but time and space do not allow.
I base my tax and support decisions on performance and to date I have not seen the level of performance out of the school system that I am willing to support with more taxes. For many resons, the system let the current facilities get in terrible condition. My concern is that they have not shown what will be different to prevent the new/remodeled facilities to fall into disrepair. I would be in favor of doing away with tenure and have each teacher be on an contract with annual performance reviews to be able to continue working. I would then be willing to pay them more, even if that means more taxes.

I am opposed to the teachers belonging to a union. I belonged to a union at one time and felt it promoted the lowest common denominator for individual performance. We need the highest level of performance to help get out of the hole they are in.

On This is Baton Rouge’s best high school