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DEF is a non-partisan, independent political blog based in the
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We've redesigned the St. Louis Schools Watch blog to coordinate it more with PUB DEF. Take a peek.
We've also added a bar to the top of both sites to help you navigate back and forth. And since time is money and these projects take up quite a bit of time, we've added more Google Ads. So do us a favor and click on those ads as often as you can consider advertising on STLSchools.org. Thanks.
City's credit improves, Comptroller again says TIFs should be reduced
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Friday, June 02, 2006 at 6:55 PM
Comptroller Darlene Green's office today announced that the City of St. Louis' credit rating has again been bumped up.
Green said Standard & Poor's Ratings Service upgraded the city's credit rating from "A-" to "A with a stable outlook." Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service also affirmed their "A-" and "A3" ratings, respectively, and raised their long-term outlooks from stable to positive on the city's $45.2 million of outstanding general obligation bond debt. General obligation debt is backed by the city’s property tax revenue and used mostly for public safety expenses.
A good credit rating lets the city borrow money at a lower interest rate resulting in decreased costs to taxpayers. This is the sixth credit rating upgrade for the City since Green became Comptroller in 1995.
Green, the City's chief financial officer, said the positive financial outlook shows that St. Louis is in a position to ask for more from potential developers.
"To keep our ratings at current levels and to raise them even higher requires greater fiscal responsibility now and in the future. The tax abatement and Tax Increment Financing that jump started our economy needs to be reduced now to ensure tax revenue will keep pace with the demand for city services," said Green.
Green has been at odds with Mayor Francis Slay on this issue. Slay has maintained that allowing developers -- especially downtown developers -- to pay no property taxes is in the best interest of the City because it encourages people to move downtown.
The Comptroller has suggested that the benefit be reduced to force developers and new loftbuyers to pay at least some -- maybe as much as 50% -- of the taxes they would normally owe so the City can keep up with expenses such as education funding, which comes primarily from property taxes.
School board member Peter Downs has let his thoughts be known on the issue of closing Cleveland NJROTC High School. In a letter published in his St. Louis Schools Watch newsletter (whose blog PUB DEF hosts and contributes to), Downs said that he thinks the students should be moved out of the building. But he would also like the district to work with representatives from the community and the alumni to explore private fundraising efforts to keep the 93 year-old landmark alive.
"Some people may argue that since the old school board refused to work with north side communities when it closed 16 schools three years ago, this board should not work with south side communities now," wrote Downs. "I opposed the board's action three years ago. I do not believe that wrong doing by school board members three years ago in any way sets a precedent that I must follow today."
Downs added that any plans to move Cleveland's students to McKinley Classical Academy would be a mistake.
"I think it makes no sense to mess with a successful program that regularly ranks among the top ten in the state," said Downs.
The month of May brought another month of growth in traffic for pubdefweekly.com. We received 35,874 visits last month -- that's a 26% increase over the previous month!
Thanks for making PUB DEF a part of your day. We encourage you to spread the word to your friends and co-workers. Email our stories, give away printouts of the print edition to folks that don't surf the Web like us, put a link on your own website or blog. And advertise.
Even though our traffic has increased 89% since we started accepting ads back in February, we're keeping our rates the same.
On the high end: $250 for a one-time, one-week ad. More likely: $100-$150 per week for multiple weeks.
Tiffany Watkins, Talent's deputy campaign manager, wrote the first entry in the site's new campaign diary.
"Jim will be kicking off his campaign in Springfield, Joplin, Kansas City and Columbia on Friday, June 2, and in St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, St. Joseph and Hannibal on Saturday, June 3," wrote Watkins.
Talent is expected to face Democrat Claire McCaskill in the November election.
State Rep. Sherman Parker will be hosting three roundtables on health care issues on Friday, June 2.
The first, at the Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Peters, MO will begin at 11:00 am. Parker will appear at a senior center "to be announced" at 1:30 p.m., followed by a discussion at the People’s Health Care Clinic, 5701 Delmar, at 4:00 p.m.
Parker is running in August's Republican Primary election against Congressman Todd Akin.
Download the latest issue of PUB DEF Weekly. It's been a while -- our designer, Nick Bommarito, has been busy with wedding planning (Congrats, Nicky B!) -- so remember: make as many copies as you like and distribute them in your apartment building, on campus, in City Hall, wherever. But for God's sake, don't litter. We hate that!
VIDEO: 3rd Ward recall battle spills into committee hearing
By Antonio D. French
Maxine Johnson is pissed off. The 3rd Ward homeowner says her property is being taken by eminent domain so that a church can level it and build several new houses on her block. She said her alderman, Freeman Bosley, Sr., told her many months ago that she didn't need to worry because her home was safe. Johnson is now determined to recall Bosley.
At a hearing yesterday on an unrelated piece of legislation, Johnson addressed Bosley and members of the Housing, Urban Development and Zoning committee.
Ald. Lewis Reed (6th Ward) defended his colleague, telling Johnson that she may not know about many of the fights that Bosley is engaged in.
He said that it was unfair to exclusively blame northside elected officials for the state of north St. Louis. He said that it has often been the City of St. Louis itself that has caused blight in some parts of town. He pointed to The Team Four Plan as an example.
At yesterday's meeting of the Housing, Urban Development and Zoning committee, a bill introduced by Ald. Frank Williamson (26th Ward) to create a redevelopment plan for the area around Union and Page Avenues sparked quite a response from some residents of that ward.
While there is no mention of eminent domain in Board Bill 16, several people feared that the plan might lead to their property being taken -- something that Williamson said will not happen.
Maggie McFadden, a 26th Ward homeowner, asked the committee why the city seems to bend over backwards when a developer wants property from the City's Land Reutilization Authority (LRA).
McFadden said that when a homeowner living next to an LRA property wants to buy it, the city offers very little aid and forces them to jump through lots of hoops. She added that many neighborhoods in the city look as bad as they do because of the run-down city-owned property. She called the City of St. Louis its own worst landlord.
After a brief exchange with Ald. Fred Wessels (13th Ward), McFadden told him, "Please don't try to rush me away from here because this city is operated on my tax money."
We think Wessels quickly learned what everyone else in the room already knew: Don't mess with Ms. McFadden.
A letter from Superintendent Creg Williamsappeared in today's Oakville-Mehlville Journal. In the letter, titled "Which is worth more -- a building or 600 students?," Williams said he did not recommend closing Cleveland NJROTC High School -- just to move the students.
"This discussion is not about closing schools," wrote Williams. "It is about students who must sit in an environment that is not conducive to learning, and in classrooms that put their health at risk."
For just about everyone else, the debate is about SLPS moving to close Cleveland High -- without a clear plan for what to do with its students, or the building.
Williams just recommended moving Cleveland's students at the school board's May 2 administrative meeting (just three weeks before the last day of class), asking them to vote on the recommendation just seven days later. It is not likely that students would have been moved out of the building before the end of the school year.
Even now, four weeks later, questions still remain about where Williams plans to move the 600-plus students and what will be done with the NJROTC program. And the superintendent has offered no plan at all for what to do with the building.
Some have suggested that Williams, who openly supported the unsuccessful re-election campaigns of Darnetta Clinkscale and James Buford, has planned for some time to close Cleveland but held off bringing the proposal to the old board during the heated school board campaign.
A new group has been formed to begin organizing to keep the "old castle" alive. The Alliance to Save Cleveland High will meet tomorrow, June 1, at the Dutchtown office, 4204 Virginia Ave., to form a steering committee and "come together as a community to act now in unity, with one goal: save Cleveland High School!"
The Alliance will also be holding a press conference on Monday, June 5, to mark the official launch of the organization. That event will be in front of Cleveland High School at 10:00 a.m.
At last night's Tilles Park Neighborhood Association candidate forum, Stacey Williams, a south St. Louis City resident, asked the 4th District State Senate candidates about the issue of crime.
"There are parts of this city that I know that even St. Louis policemen wouldn't dare be going in to," said Williams. "Good question, good question," someone in the audience shouted.
Derio Gambaro touted his support by the Fraternal Order of Police (the white police officers' union) as proof of his support for law and order issues. Jeff Smith said he didn't get the police endorsement because he opposed allowing cops to move out of the city.
Amber Boykins said that as a state rep, she has worked with Chief Joe Mokwa and Mayor Francis Slay on getting more officers patrolling those high-crime areas that Williams was probably talking about.
Three of the five people running for the open 4th District State Senate seat showed up Tuesday night at the Tilles Park Neighborhood Association candidate forum. State Rep. Amber Boykins, former State Rep. Derio Gambaro, and former Congressional candidate Jeff Smith answered questions from southside residents and moderator Jo Mannies, of the Post-Dispatch.
Most of the meeting was pretty tame, with candidates fielding questions on subjects such as education funding and how they would deal with a Republican majority in Jefferson City. But the first jab of the night was thrown by Smith on a question about Social Security funding -- an area which a state senator has almost no input on. Smith said Derio Gambaro has supported privatizing Social Security in the past, a charge that Gambaro strongly denied.
Candidates Kenny Jones and Yaphett El-Amin did not attend. Jones sent a representative. El-Amin told PUB DEF that she did not attend because the forum's organizers told her she could not be on the panel because the proper forms were not returned in time, something she said is not true.
Check later for a video of the candidates addressing the issue of crime.
The Tilles Park Neighborhood Association will be hosting its candidate forum tonight. The Post-Dispatch's senior political reporter, Jo Mannies, will serve as moderator.
The event starts at 7 p.m. and will be at the St. Louis Police Officers Association Hall, 3710 Hampton. It is open to the public.
In a letter to its members, the president and the executive board of the St. Louis City teachers union called the 2005-06 school year one of the most frustrating, demanding, and exhausting that the teachers, paraprofessionals and secretarial/clerical employees have ever had to endure.
"The disrespect and disregard for the rights of the employees has proven unbearable," said the letter.
Mary Armstrong, the union chief, said that Superintendent Creg Williams addressed her members at their May 2005 meeting and asked them to give him one year to make a difference and to show his willingness to work with Local 420. "The last thing I want to do is pick a fight with the union," she recalled him saying.
"That year is finally over!" wrote Armstrong. She said Williams was invited to address the union again this year and "clarify some of the District's questionable actions." Williams declined.
In addition to the concerns about teacher rehirings after the announced reconstitution and restructuring of 13 city schools, the teachers union is also upset about recent shorts in pay.
"We have just been officially informed on Friday, May 26th, that due to another payroll mistake, 10-month employees' last payroll check will be for only 5 days!" wrote Armstrong.
The union has called an emergency meeting of its full membership for Sunday, June 4. A review of the 2005-06 school year will be followed by a question and answer session open to all members. The time and place will be announced later on the union's website and on postcards mailed to members.
Other school-related meetings coming up:
School Board Administrative Meeting, June 6, at 7:00 p.m., 801 N. 11th Street, Room 108.
School Board Regular Meeting Monthly Meeting, June 13, Carr Lane School Auditorium , 7:00 p.m.
Stay up with the latest on the city's public schools at www.stlschools.org
Despite the extreme heat, thousands of people came out today for the 3rd Annual Bosnian Festival in south St. Louis' Bevo neighborhood. See more exclusive PUB DEF photos of the families, rides and festivities at today's event at www.pubdefweekly.com/photos/bosnianfest.
