Send a letter NOW to support tax transparency!

[jalinder]

Dear ILMPS Supporter:

Do you have five minutes to email the Milwaukee Common Council's Finance and Personnel Committee today requesting transparency on city of Milwaukee property tax bills? At their 9am meeting tomorrow, the committee will take up a resolution sponsored by Ald Nik Kovac titled "Resolution relating to the information to be included with the tax bills provided to City property owners and appropriating funds for this purpose." (ITEM # 10 on the agenda found here: http://milwaukee.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=126631&GUID=782C2204-2BF6-42A3-A2D1-B1E639F33A48)  We are asking the committee to support this resolution so that the money funneled to the voucher program is separated from the MPS tax levy. 

Did you know that last year nearly $50 million of the MPS levy actually went to voucher schools? That's almost as much as the levy for MATC. But that levy is currently hidden within the MPS levy on your property tax bill. This is a simple request for transparency in government. Please read the letter below that I am sending today to the committee. And then write your own. Please email your letter to the committee's staff assistant Tobie Black (tbl...@milwaukee.gov) requesting that your letter be distributed to the committee for their Wednesday meeting.

If you would like to attend, the meeting begins at 9am (Room 301B City Hall). The public is welcome, but there is no way of knowing when this agenda item will be heard. It is also unclear whether public testimony will be accepted, that is up to the committee Chair. But it is clear that you can make your voice heard by sending a letter right now.

Sincerely,

Jasmine Alinder

Public School Parent

www.ilovemypublicschool.com

To: Tobie Black, Staff Assistant, 

tbl...@milwaukee.gov

**Please distribute to members of the Common Council Finance & Personnel Committee for their October 5^th meeting**

October 4, 2011

Dear Members of the Common Council Finance & Personnel Committee:

I am writing as a city of Milwaukee property taxpayer and a proud parent of a child in Milwaukee Public Schools asking that you approve Alderman Kovac’s "Resolution relating to the information to be included with the tax bills provided to City property owners and appropriating funds for this purpose." This resolution is also in line with the MPS Board’s request to increase transparency in government by asking the City Treasurer and Comptroller to make clear that over $50 million of Milwaukee’s property taxpayer dollars go to the voucher program. Most people don’t know that this is the case because the voucher tax is hidden within the MPS tax levy. Last year 17% of what was listed on my tax bill as going to MPS actually went to pay the voucher tax. That’s a huge amount of money, just about the same as Milwaukeeans pay to MATC. As a property taxpayer in Milwaukee, it’s long past time that this state sponsored shell game is ended and long past due that all Milwaukee taxpayers know where our money is actually going.

As a parent I am also concerned because the way that the voucher tax is hidden within the MPS levy could jeopardize the School Board’s power to put the maximum amount of resources into our children’s public schools. That will be especially true next year because in the recently passed state budget the state legislature included a clause that allows for an additional $50 per pupil in funding, but only to those districts that use all of their tax levy authority. It’s not clear why they decided to do things that way, but they did, and if the voucher tax increases substantially and gives the appearance that the MPS tax levy is even higher than it actually is, the MPS Board may be pressured not to use all of its authority and MPS could lose out on more than $4 million. My daughter lost five valued, caring teachers in her school this year, including her beloved art teacher. We cannot afford to let my child and all of our 80,000 kids in Milwaukee public schools suffer any further cuts. Their futures are at stake.

It is common sense that elected officials, policymakers, parents and taxpayers should all have access to factual, non-biased information, and that information should be clear and readily available. Please support this resolution. It is about two of our city’s core values: transparency in city government and the care of our children. These are values that this Common Council should advocate with the passage of this resolution.

 

Sincerely,

Jasmine Alinder

XXXX N Farwell Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53211