The Twenty-Ten Rule
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A number of years ago New Richmond was considered to be a true suburb of the Twin Cities. A relatively short commute, cheap gas prices, and a reasonable cost for home construction and property taxes; there was value in moving from the Twin Cities to New Richmond. And many people did.
Residents were joyful that their investment in their homes continued to accelerate as NR realtors and contractors kept raising prices to play catch up with Minneapolis – St. Paul. Neighboring communities to the east however weren’t quite as fortunate with their home values. Baldwin, Woodville, Elmwood, Spring Valley; try as hard as they could – they were just too far away from the Twin Cities for the average commuter. These communities kept their small town charm; but the real estate value was far below anything in New Richmond or Hudson. The option for Twin Cities residents considering purchasing a home in western Wisconsin was to move to Hudson, New Richmond or River Falls and pay top dollar for Wisconsin real estate; or move to Elmwood, Baldwin, or Spring Valley where they could purchase more home for less money, but pay exorbitant commuting costs.
And then, when everybody was sleeping, the price of gasoline rose from $2.50 a gallon to $4.00 a gallon. Just like that! This is when the Twenty-Ten rule came into play.
What is the Twenty-Ten rule? Simply stated it goes like this: For every $1.00 hike in gasoline prices, New Richmond moves 20 miles to the east in the eyes of those Twin Cities residents considering moving to Western Wisconsin. When the price of gasoline rose from $2.50 to $3.00 (just fifty cents), New Richmond moved ten miles to the east ending up in rural Cylon. This past year as the gas prices rose another full dollar New Richmond moved an additional twenty miles east and found itself in the outskirts of Glenwood City. There is about as much appeal for Twin Cities folks to move to New Richmond today as there was for those same folks to move to Glenwood City two years ago when the gasoline price was $2.50 a gallon.
Where does the Ten in the Twenty-Ten rule come into play? For every twenty miles that New Richmond moves east, the value of current homes in New Richmond drops an additional ten percent. So in other words in the past two years as the price of gas has soared from $2.50 a gallon to $4.00 a gallon, New Richmond has moved 30 miles to the east in the eyes of those considering moving here; and the value of the average house in New Richmond has dropped by 15%.
So what happens when gas prices reach $5.00 a gallon later this summer? The answer is simple. New Richmond will be a suburb of Menomonie in the eyes of potential commuters and home purchasers, and the value of the average home will have dropped 25%. $6.00 a gallon? Eau Claire and 35%.
Now wait a minute! What about the Stillwater bridge that is scheduled for construction in the year 2024 and the accompanying 600 new housing starts every year the School District Parrot Board promised? By 2024 New Richmond will be located in Stanley. A bridge to Stanley doesn’t make much sense. Who wants to commute to a prison any way? On top of that our Democratic governor has diverted our highway and bridge funds to government education to overpay our administrators. There isn’t any bridge money now, and won’t be any bridge money in the future. Ask those in Winona about Wisconsin’s role in funding bridges.
But rest assured New Richmond. We have had the privilege of being hood-winked into constructing 35% – 40% more classroom space than what will ever be needed. Why? Because the Parrot Board believed the false growth figures provided by a consultant who has a reputation of being wrong more than being right. Try to get a straight answer from the Parrot Board about our true growth figures. It’s easier getting a Democrat to support new off shore drilling! New Richmond will not be growing any faster in the future than Emerald, Downing, or Boyceville has in the past. To make matters worse, with that 35% – 40% surplus classroom space comes the doubling of that portion of our property taxes that supports our School District. Now how attractive is that to someone considering moving to New Richmond, but at the same time is looking for value? There is no value in paying exorbitant taxes for surplus classroom space that isn’t needed today, and won’t be needed in the future.
The Twenty-Ten rule. My twenty bucks to your ten that the New Richmond Parrot Board will never offer an apology for the way they misled the voters in that $93,000,000 fiasco of a referendum.
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I won’t take it. Assuming you are talking about the NR school board, they will claim due diligence in taking the advice of the bond consultant and Hazel Reinhardt.
It’s not us chickens.
Ziller: Parrot Board – a board that isn’t given responsibility for thinking, only repeating what high paid administrators tell them to say. It works best when all seven members are saying the exact same thing in unison with unity. Qualifications for being a good parrot are experience in being spineless or brainless, or both. If anyone on the board has a mind of their own, or expresses an opinion contrary to the administration they are shunned by the administrators and other parrot board members.
Ziller, if I remember correctly you submitted a minority opinion on the Long Term Facilities Committee. That’s not the parrot thing to do. Did you ever feel shunned, ignored, or marginalized? Non-parrots often do.
You are correct in assuming I’m talking about the New Richmond School (parrot) Board. Take a look at their minutes for the past eighteen months and see if there was ever one opinion expressed that would go contrary to the puppet masters.
When I was on the board, I was told in no uncertain terms that when a vote was in the affirmative on any issue I disagreed with, I should check my brain at the door and support whatever was approved. That’s good governance, you see.
During the first meeting of the long range planning committee, I suggested that it looked like there was a hidden agenda. Meeting agendas were always prepared the administration. It was group think from the being.
Judge Needham, to his credit, allowed me to give the alternative report at the school board meeting. I was prepared and got dagger eyes from the audience and others.
bobziller part II
Good post above. I think you’ll recognize my letter in this week’s NRN.
bobziller@nrcomm.net
I am wondering about the second part of the referendum, when it was voted “NO” for the $500,000. a year for five years for operational costs. Will they have another referendum or just do it? I would think they would have to have another referendum for those costs.
As stated before, is no a no? Could never understand why the $93 mil got voted in and not the operational costs that went along with it. Maybe they did not understand the whole package. I would guess they will have to have another referendum for the $500,000. What will happen if they vote “no” again? Will the schools stand empty till they get their operational costs? Where will they get their $2.5 million to run the schools?