Here are a couple of good stories from the Star Tribune that I found of interest yesterday:
Eden Prairie’s proposed property tax increase for 2005 appears on the modest side when compared to other West Metro cities:
Tax collections to jump in west-metro cities
Ben Steverman, Star Tribune
Also a front page article on weblogs:
From geek to chic: Blogs gain influence
Bob Von Sternberg, Star Tribune
I attended the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce’s “Education Funding: It’s Your Business” presentation at the Bloomington Sheraton yesterday. It was an educational meeting facilitated by the Chamber and sponsored by ADC Telecommunications and by Endurant Business Solutions.
It was a panel presentation and discussion about the future of K-12 education funding in Minnesota. The panel consisted of Ric Dressen, Superintendent of Alexandria Public Schools; Melissa Krull, Superintendent of Eden Prairie Schools; Patricia Harvey, Superintendent of St. Paul Schools; Dr. Tom Melcher, Manager of Public Finance for the Minnesota Department of Education; Arthur Rolnick, senior vice-president of the Federal Reserve bank of Minneapolis; Alice Seagren, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Education; and John Gunyou, City Manager for Minnetonka.
The panel was great. It covered a variety of perspectives. The message was tough. School funding from the State is going to decrease, according to the adopted state budget, each year for the next three years. Commissioner Seagren said yesterday that the Governor would seek to add an inflation factor to school funding, but there is no assurance that this will happen. The state’s budget looks very red two years out. The 2005 legislature will wrestle with that.
