What kind of museum will the District build? I suggest one dedicated to sacred cows, albatrosses and gold bricks.

Its long overdue that the San Mateo County District Attorney and our state rep Jerry Hill take a look at this corrupt operation passing itself off as a spender of the peoples money for the good of the community. [Portion removed; don't make speculative accusations of illegal profiteering by public officials.]

[Portion removed; the poster was referring to a speculative accusation by another poster that has since been removed.]

Check the filed Form 700s and don't make allegations that you cannot substantiate.

I have served on the Board for over 15 years and by my records I have contributed in excess of $20k to the Fire District in cash donations and received nothing in return.

Redwood City Elementary, Sequoia Union School District, Ravenswood School District are not basic aid school districts. What that means is that the state supplements their property tax revenue to meet a per student per day attendance spending target. The net effect is that all California tax payers are providing a subsidy for the fire district purchase of property.

Las Lomitas and Menlo Park Elementary are basic aid districts so they do get penalized in their property tax revenue when the fire district buys a property in the basic aid school district.

Several of the properties were purchased to provide for the possibility for future expansion of existing fire stations. The Fire District should provide a more detailed rationale, because based on population growth, and service rates for those areas, there should be other areas targeted for expansion.

" In objective journalism, stories must be balanced in the sense of attempting to present all sides of a story"

How much land is owned by each of these entities within the geographical area covered bt the Almanac and what would be the property taxes if those entities were not exempt?

City of Menlo Park
Town of Atherton
County of San Mateo
West Bay Sanitary District
Elementary School Districts
High School District
Menlo School
Menlo College
Sacred Heart School
Stanford University
Veterans Administration
Schmidt Family Foundation
Various churches and their related foundations

How much housing space has been taken up by such non-public uses as the Circus Club and the Sharon Heights Club and are those properties assesses at their highest and best use?

How many of the public agencies listed above provide free or subsidized housing for its employees? The answer of course is none. The District will vote next month on a proposal to rent the Atherton and menlo park houses at below market rates. Inexplicably, rents for the two houses are valued to be in the same range. Will rental trigger the payment of property taxes? If yes, than the net income to the District from the properties will be zero. The District should have left the money in the bank rather than become a landlord to its employees.
See the April 4 housing proposal to the finance committee on the District website.

"The answer of course is none"

Wrong - for example the Town of Atherton provides permanent housing for the Police Chief and temporary housing for its police officers. The VA provides housing for a number of its employees.

Perhaps it is time to revisit the state and federal tax codes regarding nonprofits. If they benefit from local, state and fed services and protections then they should be paying taxes. They benefit from an educated populace so they should also be paying public school taxes preschool through university.

And some nonprofits are just too wealthy - Guide Dogs for the Blind, numerous SPCAs. Orgs like NRA don't need or deserve nonprofit status. And some universities have too much money and donations while others which serve distressed groups and communities have nothing.

Some major metropolitan museums, orchestras, operas etc are too damn wealthy existing to a great extent to serve the few who can afford the price of admission and the major donors who enjoy attending the gala events while enjoying large personal tax write-offs.