News from Greater Minnesota

Nothing is certain until the ink is dry on the Minnesota state budget deals, but it looks as though our education system will bear the brunt of the “no new taxes” pledge. In effect, schools have become the state’s banker with the state borrowing $700 million from schools, forcing these schools to draw down their cash reserves or swing short-term loans from banks with the promise that the state will repay schools on some future date. Of course, there’s no money to repay them, and that worries school administrators. Solid reports on the issue have been coming in from newspapers across the state.

Trey Mewes at the Austin Daily Herald found that the Austin school district still has enough in its budget to cover the lack of income from the state, but Hayfield cut almost $300,000 last year, including a full-time teaching position, to meet the shift; Lyle may open a line of credit to pay its bills; and the shift will require Southland and LeRoy/Ostrander to leave teaching positions unfilled. Ryan Howard of the Fergus Falls Journal found that Ashby will give up its cash reserves to pay the state’s debt; Fergus Falls will borrow about $4 million to pay its bills; and Underwood will go to a bank to look for a short-term loan. Helmut Schmidt of the Fargo Forum said Moorhead had to borrow about $5 million last year and will borrow about $8.5 million to $9 million this year because of state underfunding and Perham will most likely go to banks for money as well. And don’t forget that the money to pay for these loans and cash reserves comes from higher property taxes. “No new taxes” indeed.

Marshall is crowing about its recent growth. Projections had 2000-2010 population growth for the city at about 3 percent and a population decline for Lyon County, but 2010 Census figures show a 7.4 percent increase for the city and a 1.7 percent increase in the county. Deb Gau’s story in the Marshall Independent takes a victory lap around the state: “Census data said Marshall's population is now 13,680, higher than that of Brainerd, New Ulm, Bemidji, Worthington and Alexandria.” Data shows the largest minority to be Latinos, who make up 7.8 percent of Marshall's population and 6 percent of Lyon County's population.

Two related stories appeared in unrelated newspapers this week. Derek Sullivan wrote in the Owatonna People’s Press that demand for Owatonna Early Childhood Special Education program has increased from 63 children to 187. This has caused a space crunch for the district. Mark Krug, the district’s director of special services, said he hopes any additional space will not only help ECSE students, but also increase early-childhood education for everyone. “The goal is always early intervention, and that way by the time the students are three years old, they have gotten the support they need and are now making the milestones in the expected window,” Krug said. To that end, Jana Hollingsworth of the Duluth News Tribune reports that the University of Minnesota Duluth’s teacher education program will begin offering a combined elementary-special-education program that yields two licenses at once: one for teaching kindergarten through sixth grade and one for K-12. This will not only help teach special-education students in elementary schools, but will help schools save money. When the state cuts education budgets, many rural districts look for teachers licensed in more than on area. Classes begin in the fall with 42 students, with 30 expected to enroll each successive semester.

High crop values have translated into high land prices. In five years, the market value on agricultural land in Nobles County has increased by nearly $1 billion, according to a story by Julie Buntjer in the Worthington Daily Globe. Nobles County Assessor Byron Swart said the trend will likely continue, and as farmers continue to pay more for crop land. As a result, Swart and the county are increasing market values on all agricultural land in the county by 15.74 percent this year. That brings the county’s total agricultural land value to $2.1 billion for 2011 — nearly $1 billion more than the 2006 ag land value of $1.1 billion. Tillable agricultural land in Nobles County increased in value by nearly $700 per acre in 2010-2011 over the previous 12-month period, while deeded land increased approximately $650 per acre. This means more tax capacity. Based on the year ending Sept. 30, 2010, more tax dollars are generated from agricultural land than residential, commercial/industrial and other properties combined in the county.

After discovering the names of more Rochester-area Civil War casualties, the names of 162 veterans were added to Soldiers Field Veterans Memorial last weekend, according to a story by Mike Klein of the RPB. The names were discovered in a history book written in the late 1860s. When the memorial was started, organizers thought the number of veterans who had died from injuries suffered in service from the Civil War to the present would be 300 to 400. With the new names, the memorial now has nearly 2,800 names, said Wayne Stillman, Soldiers Field Memorial president. “Southeastern Minnesota paid a dear price for freedom," he said.

Here’s a headline you can’t pass up: “False satellite healer to serve probation.” The story comes from Amanda Lillie of the Austin Daily Herald who reports that a Stewartville man convinced a diabetic that he could be cured by satellite-borne laser beams that doctors in Germany would use to eliminate toxins and bring polarities of energy channels back in line. Ronald Charles Renken, 67, was convicted on one count of gross misdemeanor theft by swindle. He was sentenced to one year of supervised probation in lieu of one year in jail. Renken told the man he was cured and could stop taking his medicine, and told a woman that the German doctors had found “cancer all over her body” and several blocked arteries. The couple had paid Renken $2,316 for the man’s treatment and $4,150 to use a satellite beam to eliminate lead and iron from their water well. Renken has been ordered to pay restitution.

Duluthites apparently love their mayor. A recent survey finds that 86 were somewhat satisfied by Mayor Don Ness’ job performance. Lisa Baumann of the D-Newt writes that the poll was conducted by the National Research Center through mail surveys to 1,200 households in Duluth for the third straight year. Apparently, the message has not been lost on political challengers: It looks as though Ness will not face competition in his re-election bid. For complete survey results and methodology, visit the city's website.

Amtrak will restore service along the full Empire Builder route this week, the Associated Press reported. The line, which runs between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest, suspended service between St. Paul, and Havre, Mont., in June because of flooding in North Dakota. The Empire Builder will resume a full route at all stops except Minot, where the station will remain closed until damage from Souris River flooding can be repaired.

I don’t usually like “dumb crook” stories, but this one is exceptional. Investigators say a GED for Ryan James Sabot, 34, of Moorhead, was left behind in the parking lot next to fresh tire tracks at Sabin’s C-Store after a May 30 burglary shortly before 1 a.m., according to a story by Dave Roepke of the Fargo Forum. Police quoted Sabot as saying, “I shouldn’t have let them use my car,” when he was asked about the burglaries. Nicholas Wallace Johnson, 20, of Glyndon, is an alleged accomplice. Officers say Johnson told them Sabot and two 18-year-olds joined him in burglarizing the stores. He said they couldn’t access the C-Store’s safe or ATM and took a cash drawer box that had no money in it from the General Store. The owner of the C-Store told deputies the only item missing was a $50 carton of Marlboro cigarettes. Sabot has a 1996 burglary conviction in Clay County. Johnson has two burglary convictions from Norman County in 2010 and a conviction in Clay County for burglary from 2007.

Both ABC and NBC have come calling for Lisa Fine of St. Clair. Amanda Dyslin of the Mankato Freep said a YouTube video of Fine and her friend, Lindsey Grunst of St. Peter, landed in the hands of producers for NBC’s “The Voice,” who invited the pair to skip the show’s usual cattle call and audition directly for producers. Meanwhile, Fine competed last weekend in ABC’s “Karaoke Battle USA,” in Chicago. Bon champs to you, Lisa and Lindsey!

And lastly, it would simply be wrong not to mention the winner of the sauerkraut speed-eating contest at New Ulm’s Bavarian Blast last weekend. Josh Moniz of the New Ulm Journal covered the event at which 19 people devoured 14-ounce cans of sauerkraut. Competitors came from as far as Nebraska, Colorado and New Jersey to vie for the coveted prize. The second-place trophy was a plastic boot-shaped beer mug. The first-place trophy was two plastic boot-shaped beer mugs. The winner was 16-year-old Mitchel Paisker of Franklin, N.J. Second place went to Gene Buhr of Albert Lea. Paisker said his strategy involved draining the juice from sauerkraut before eating it.

John Fitzgerald is a freelance writer and longtime Minnesotan who lives in Buffalo.