Yes, it's time again for Burlington's annual exercise in guilt inducement and extortion. A rite of passage in which one of America's most corrupt unions demands more money from middle-class Burlingtonians. And if they don't get it on the first try, they'll just keep begging until the weak voter base gives in.
I don't want anybody to think that this is an easy blog to write. My mother works in the Burlington schools, and recently received a significant raise, which she desperately needed as she struggles to support herself as a Chittenden County homeowner. Expenses such as raises for people who make $9 an hour living in the Northeast are completely necessary, and if I were still a Burlington taxpayer, I wouldn't have a problem footing the bill for that specific expense.
But some of the proposals are just downright goofy. Check out this gem, as published in Wednesday's edition of the Burlington Free Press:
Funding requests include money for a call alert system that the district has decided to implement in early 2008. The automated system will alert parents via e-mail, cell phone or land line of snow days or unexpected early release from school.
Wait...what? Did all the local television and radio stations shut down when I wasn't looking? Usually, they tell people if school is closed FOR FREE. Yet the BSD wants to pay so that people don't have to engage themselves in the cumbersome task of turning on a radio or television? Come the fuck on.
All told, the total budget increase would be 7.5%. I didn't get a 7.5% raise this year. I appreciate teachers, but they need to understand that's it's hard for everybody these days. I do love how they try to cry poor to a city of working-class people who pay skyrocketing property taxes to fund education in other Vermont towns. As I say every year, not only do I encourage the bourgeoisie of Burlington to vote "no", but to continue to vote "no" until staff salaries and the costs of educating the students become two separate budgets with two separate votes.
