Physical altercation today at Duluth Denfeld
Related
Howie: Here comes Duluth Public Schools Red Plan Jr.
Debt service already consumes about 60 percent of the school levy. With this addition of $38 million in bonding debt, Duluth is entering a decade in which the school system will spend more paying off debt than teaching future students.
Howie: Duluth Public Schools still drowning in Red Plan debt
Since 2008, Duluth Public Schools has paid more than $300 million toward Red Plan debt service, with $175 million remaining. By the time the bonds are gone, Duluth will have spent half a billion dollars servicing a plan that shrank the district, buried its budget, and doubled property taxes.
Howie: Duluth Schools' formula for levy creep
Duluth Schools' levy creep isn’t an accident. It’s a feature of the system, baked into Minnesota law, and the district has leaned on it harder than any of its neighbors. The taxpayers? They’re the audience at a rigged show, asked to clap politely while the board insists there’s no other way.
Howie: Trust and integrity are cornerstones of public education
Multiple referendums have been floated in recent years asking voters for more funding — and taxpayers have responded with a clear and resounding no. Not because we don’t support kids. We do. But because we no longer trust the system to spend responsibly.
Latest
St. Louis County highlights property tax refund programs available to residents
Nearly 37% of residents in the Arrowhead region, which includes St. Louis County, qualified for a property tax refund in 2023, the most recent year for which information is available.
Howie: The day Minnesota health care went national — and what Duluth should be watching next
Essentia Health has spent the last few years exploring its own version of the future — conversations with Marshfield Clinic that fell apart and a proposed alignment with the University of Minnesota that never found its footing.
Tim Meyer: What does the most famous man in the world want? Peace of mind.
Meyer is a Duluth architect and community builder writing about Downtown Duluth, politics, business, sports and economic development. Reach him at tim.meyer@meyergroupduluth.com I watched a documentary on Netflix last weekend about Paul McCartney and his post-Beatles band, Wings, and it landed with the kind of quiet force
Howie: Duluth isn’t a used car sales lot — and it doesn’t need a pitchman
What was intended as connection begins to blur into something else — something that, in its saturation, can feel closer to a pitch than a public service. An overextended one. Almost like a showroom floor that never quite closes.