{"id":399,"date":"2007-05-18T07:28:56","date_gmt":"2007-05-18T11:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/?p=399"},"modified":"2007-05-18T07:30:59","modified_gmt":"2007-05-18T11:30:59","slug":"one-year-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/?p=399","title":{"rendered":"One Year Later"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I thanked a friend for a really nice letter to the editor<\/a> (it was in the Observer<\/a> yesterday), and he noted that it was exactly one year ago — to the day — that I’d thanked him for a very supportive post <\/a>for our school system on AtomicTumor.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I think that was before I’d actually met him in real life (as opposed to virtual life, which though different, is often more "real" than real life), but I do remember a feeling of gratitude that people like AT and GAC, Bos<\/a> and Mrs. Eaves <\/a>had moved to Oak Ridge to raise their families. They are the real hope for our future. We had the gift of GAC for far too short a time, but she left an indelible imprint that makes us better in many ways.<\/p>\n

Oak Ridge has always been a place where most people come from somewhere else — whether Norris or Norway — bringing with them a little bit of something different, something fresh, to combine with all else that is Oak Ridge for a unique combination as a whole. These days, there are some folks like myself who were actually born and raised here, but part of our role is to remember and carry on some of the treasures — our symphony, our playhouse, soccer, and so many other things — that were brought from the outside a few decades ago by others that we knew as youngsters.<\/p>\n

A comment on AT’s post last year by Joel, an Oak Ridger who grew up here and landed elsewhere, is worth repeating:<\/p>\n

\n

… And if you don’t have kids, or they’ve graduated, you owe it to yourself to keep your property values up. Let’s say that $30\/yr on a $150K home is the price of housing price stability. OTOH, without the $30\/yr, the reputation of OR schools slips, let’s say that home prices drop an average of 5%. That’s $7500 on a $150K home. In this scenario, $30\/yr is a bargain.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the parking lot outside early voting yesterday, I overheard one woman say "School board! Money, money money — raise my taxes and they always want more!<\/em>" I was saddened to hear the other school board candidate agree with a hearty, "yes ma’am, that’s why I’m running<\/em>," but I do understand: he doesn’t understand. He’s never gone through the schools budget process, which is an eye-opening experience. It was for me, too, those first couple of years.<\/p>\n

Without question, Oak Ridgers have been asked in to carry a larger share of the financial burden than most communities in Tennessee. That’s why reform at the state level is so important. However, a key element of the Governor’s plan is the cigarette tax, which is currently held hostage by partisanship<\/a> in the Legislature, and we won’t know until sometime in June what the impact to our school system will be.<\/p>\n

Second reading of the City’s budget is Monday night. We are in a better position than we were one year ago, with Council having recognized the need and taken preliminary steps to partially address<\/a> the situation, but I hope that they have the will to continue through second reading. Even so, the schools budget will still be short $140,000, and additional cuts will have to be made. While Council agreed to a ten-cent tax increase, only five of that was allocated to the schools (we needed seven).<\/p>\n

IF additional state funding comes through sometime in June, the budget will be amended. It’s going to be an interesting few weeks.<\/p>\n

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Yesterday, I thanked a friend for a really nice letter to the editor (it was in the Observer yesterday), and he noted that it was exactly one year ago — to the day — that I’d thanked him for a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}