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| We are Broke Can You Help? |
From Looming Budget Cuts to Operating in the Black
After listening to all the gloom and doom from the education folk this past session about having their funding cut imagine my surprise when I read this article in the Great Falls Tribune about building a new daycare facility at MSU-Great Falls. I am still scratching my head over how they went from “impending massive layoffs” to a position of being able to spend over a million dollars just a month or so later. I would love to take a business course from the genius that pulled off this financial miracle.
How did this miracle occur you ask? Well clear back in the 2009 legislative session the legislature appropriated money to construct a simulated hospital in the basement of the college. The people requesting the appropriation convinced the legislature they needed a million dollars and now it seems that the final cost of the project was only a mere $500,000 so they have all this additional money they can use towards a childcare facility. The College of Great Falls say they have a budget of $1.1 million to pay for this daycare center but will still be short $250,000 for furnishings.
It sure seems that people in the education systems around the state feign poverty and cry of budget cuts yet can always find ready cash for more and more projects.
What is wrong with this picture?
I think they call this fuzzy math
ReplyDeleteKind of similar to one of the Havre School board tricks in accounting
ReplyDeleteA quarter mil for furniture? Do you suppose that includes delivery or is that extra?
ReplyDeleteKind of like the remodeling at the college. Have to raise the tution but we can do unwanted or unnecessary remodeling in the regrestars office.
ReplyDeleteThe Great Falls school district has been announcing layoffs and program cuts because their mill levy failed. Friends that are teachers there claim it is all about punishing the people for voting against the mill levy so it doesn’t happen again. Fear and tugging the heartstrings with the “it’s for the kids” campaign slogans work. My friends also claim this tactic is all smoke and mirrors and that in reality they could have juggled the budget and saved those jobs.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we allow this to happen?