Today's Opinions

Community needs to care about Elk Creek board election
Editor:
The Elk Creek Fire Protection District has been in the news a lot this past year. Often the stories were negative and depicted us as unethical. The stories centered on the conduct of a small number of people. These few are no longer a part of our department.

The proposed Jefferson Parkway does not meet smart 21st-century sustainable transportation goals, according to the League of Women Voters of Jefferson County. “We oppose the proposed private toll road on many levels,” said League president Ann Roux. “It fails our tests for adequate public input and transparency, government accountability, and economic sustainability.”
The League’s opposition to the proposed parkway stems from its in-depth study of the toll road, and is based on its consensus-driven standards for evaluating any highway proposal.

I always make it a practice to ask my Metro State journalism students to explain what a mill levy is, because few things are more central to covering governments than understanding how taxing entities get money from the public.
Usually, the students look at me as if I’m speaking in an obscure Klingon dialect: A mill? A levy? What are those, and what do they have to do with government funding? These are typically intelligent, well-informed students, and they have not the slightest idea what I’m going on about.