What's Left of Maplewood (MN)

We can't draw, so we are left with verbal cartoons about Maplewood city politics.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Where will you spend yours?




Copeland headline in the latest city newsletter

What else is there to say?

posted by drawnLeftward @ 7:24 PM  

21 Comments:

  • At 9:30 PM, Blogger Frostbrand said…

    Oh my, that is richly humorous!

     

  • At 10:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Thanks for posting that DrawnLeftward. I could no longer read the headline after throwing up on mine. The body of the article was a little too rich for my stomach...

     

  • At 11:34 AM, Blogger Frostbrand said…

    > Unless he's thinking that in the
    > end, taxes didn't go up as much as
    > he had originally proposed, so hey,
    > I can say taxes decreased!

    From reading the article, that seems to be exactly the argument.

    Notice too how he lists all the money "saved" by the layoffs and firings, but does not say how much more we are spending on all the "new" positions people are shuffled to and new people are hired for. Again, this is to leave the impression that they're cutting the budget and cutting taxes, when in reality they have done the exact opposite.

    It's pretty gutsy, and really displays contempt for the citizens of Maplewood by trying to deceive them so blatantly, but exactly what we've come to expect from the up-is-down world of the Longristas.

    > What a tool. We all need to go to
    > the next council meeting and call
    > him out on this. Idiot.

    I'll play Rebecca Cave for a moment, and second that motion.

     

  • At 3:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Its kinda like going to the store wanting to spend 50 bucks.The store has a special saying 10% off purchases over $200.00.You spend $150.00 more for stuff you didn't plan on.
    Dingbat announces to his wife he saved $20.00...not spent $130.00 more.
    He is a qualified city manager...just ask him.

     

  • At 3:54 PM, Blogger Frostbrand said…

    Don't worry, we make it up on volume.

    The more we spend, the more we save!

     

  • At 3:57 PM, Blogger Frostbrand said…

    Coming next month:

    Copeland will proudly declare that crime in Maplewood has plummeted, because he and the mayor decided not to skim as much out of the city till as they had previously planned.

     

  • At 8:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    "B, as in B"

    "S, as in S"

    B.S.!!!!

    Always enjoy this blog......
    Glad I don't pay taxes in Maplewood.

     

  • At 10:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Was this headline and article so bad that even our beloved troll can't even spin it enough to bring it back around in the "right" direction?

     

  • At 11:29 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I was thinking, wouldn't any disposition done on Copeland eventually be public record? And if so, could it be used to impeach anything (stements or testimony) offered by Longrie and her bunghole friend Hjelle.

     

  • At 3:03 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I don't find the headline odd at all. In fact, is most certainly could be 100% accurate.

    I find it funny reading how many people are so clueless on how tax levies work.

    There are several different things that make up a tax levy. In the rhelm of city government, there is the general fund levy, the debt service levy, the HRA levy, etc. Some levies are based upon net tax capacity and others on market value.

    The general fund levy is based upon net tax capacity. The HRA levy is based upon market value. Debt service can be either one or the other. Voter approved debt is typically market value, and other bonds like street reconstruction bonds are net tax capacity based.

    We hear about all this talk on the general fund levy going up X%. This does not mean that your taxes are going up. What it means is that government is inreasing the total dollars they are collecting by X%.

    What determines your tax rate is something called the mill rate. To get the mill rate, you take the general fund levy and divide it up amongst the net tax capacity. If it is a market based levy like the HRA, then to get the mill rate, you take the HRA levy and divided it up amongst the market value.

    So how do you get lower taxes by raising the levy? Easy. You expand the tax base.

    How do you expand the tax base? The quickest way is to decertify TIF districts. Another way is to approve projects which increase the market value of properties. Take a vacant piece of property and put a building on it and your net tax capacity goes up. Put a commercial building on it, and it goes up even more because of the different rates residential pays vs. C/I.

    Clearly Lookingnorth isn't well versed in the dynamics of city budgeting.

    As I said earlier, you have to read a budget from cover to cover to absorb this knowledge. You can't get this out of an executive summary.

     

  • At 9:39 AM, Blogger Frostbrand said…

    Hello again, Troll.

    As Copeland clearly explained in his executive summary to the council, taxes on the median Maplewood home are increasing.

    Of course there are a lot of complexities to how taxes are calculated, but that's the bottom line. For the average "you" of Maplewood, your taxes are going up in 2007. And, Copeland's article is tilted to give the exact opposite impression.

    > As I said earlier, you have to
    > read a budget from cover to cover
    > to absorb this knowledge. You
    > can't get this out of an executive
    > summary.

    Once again, I get the impression that you're talking about some document we haven't seen, since the only budget I can find for 2007 on the city's website is the one we have been talking about, which you keep referring to as an (almost 200-page) "executive summary."

    If there is another document with more information, can you point us at a URL for it? If it's not posted on the web, how did you get access to it?

    I guess there may be such a document, and the Longristas are just so afraid of open government and accountability that they are hiding it from everyone but their personal friends.

     

  • At 11:13 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Just wanted to find out if anybody else is having any problems pulling up the City Council agenda for January 22, 2007. When you click on it, you get linked to the January 8, 2007 agenda.

    I should state that this is not the first time I have been unable to retrieve information from the City's website. Coincidence? I sincerely doubt it.

    Considering all the reorganization going on, perhaps a change should be done in the IT department, or perhaps the Mayor has decided to pursue another career.

     

  • At 12:19 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Troll:

    It's time to put your money where your pie hole is.

    As you said earlier...

    "Clearly Lookingnorth isn't well versed in the dynamics of city budgeting."

    ...you are right on the mark. I am not versed in said dynamics. Nor have I ever claimed to be. Nor do I want to be. I simply look to see if those that are representing me are lying. So far, the view is dark and scary.

    One thing I am versed at is deciphering spin from reality. Because of the three amigos and their tag-along, I am getting pretty dizzy.

    So, here is your chance. Tell us why the headline is true. Instead of spinning a bunch of mumbo jumbo about debt service levy and TIF (I did like hanging out at Tif's in college!), come up with some REAL info that supports the headline. Really! Tell me what my taxes are going to be next year on my $290K tarpaper schack in the south end.

    If you are versed yourself and are able to back up what you and the others spew, then you will be able to find some REAL meat to fill us all with. And please...NO MORE TVP!!

     

  • At 12:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    City Council agendas, minutes and meetings aren't posted to the website by IT so the change isn't needed there. It's done by the City Clerk's Office where they've been flooded by assuming all of the Park & Rec / MCC managerial decisions caused by the "Reorganization".

     

  • At 10:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I think the city clerk's office is actually being flooded by Rossbach's and Trippler's information requests. That's probably the holdup.

     

  • At 10:43 PM, Blogger Frostbrand said…

    Well, troll, that could be. Especially since the Mayor has to request copies of everyone else's data practices requests, as we learned with the office break-in incident last summer.

     

  • At 11:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Or maybe the City Clerk's office is busy making copies of the Bethel bills, which seem to have trouble making it into the consent agenda. I can only imagine how long those invoices are. Poor trees...

     

  • At 11:04 PM, Blogger Frostbrand said…

    Now that we've outsourced HR negotiations to Bethe, the more they bill us, the more we save!

    Look for next year's tax reduction to be even bigger!

     

  • At 11:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I should be able to move into a bigger house then...on CoPar land!!

     

  • At 6:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    If memory serves right, Rossbach first needed to see what Longrie was saying to Copeland. Then in reply to that, Longrie asked for a copy of everything that Rossbach wanted. If we are looking at the information request game, it was Rossbach who started it.

     

  • At 9:41 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hey, if Rossbach was being cut out of the loop by the other three, then that was probably the only way he could get any information about what they were doing. Longrie retaliated bacause that's the small-minded vindictiveness we expect out of her.

     

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