DanvilleDelivery.com

At 12:59 minutes of the linked video, Danville’s senior school board member figures out what the voters of Danville figured out in March of 2007 — Free Kindergarten was going to raise taxes.  The tax impact of kindergarten was at least $192,700 — money removed from capital reserve ($100,000 of tax impact was felt this March as we replenished the fund) and $12,700 in budget overruns.  Mr. La Salle explains…

We originally received a cost estimate — a price estimate — from turner construction. After recieving that, I think the district was encouraged to reduce the amount, or the anticipated cost of that project based on information that Mr. Hughes…working with another…firm had provided and that was the number that was used to prepare the warrant article.

If I understand Mr. La Salle, the estimates the SAU had at the time of the writing of the warrant article would not result in a No Tax Impact warrant article, so the facilities manager sought out a ‘bidder’ who would come in with a ‘zero impact’ bid, but did not award the contract to the low bidder or hold the selected contractor to the terms of the lower bid.  It sounds to me like the SAU sought out the second bidder only to get a number that could be used to write a deliberately deceptive warrant article.

I would like to understand the final bid process, who the ‘no impact’ bidder was, and why they were not awarded the contract.

Even if one accepts the assertion that taking money from a capital reserve fund then replenishing the fund has no tax impact, it is clear that the SAU knew there would be additional tax impact when writing the warrant.

You can also read between the lines that this reallocation of funds has left the SAU with budget problems that will result is compromised services going forward.