Anoka-Hennepin School Board Approves Budget in 4-2 Vote
A deeply split Anoka-Hennepin School Board put aside its differences long enough to pass its 2025-26 budget on June 23.
The board approves a budget plan to bring in about $750 million in revenue and spend about $780 million.
That’s a $22 million or 2.9 percent increase in spending over the previous year.
Michelle Vargas, Anoka-Hennepin’s chief financial officer, said that the general fund is expected to have about a $15 million deficit.
That deficit could potentially be addressed through future cuts or a voter referendum.
Board members voted 4-2 to approved the budget, with Matt Audette and Linda Hoekman casting dissenting votes.
The debate over the budget highlighted sharp differences between members.
Sharp Differences
Some outside viewers have characterized the board as ideologically split 3-3, with co-chair Zach Arco, Audette and Hoekman representing a right-wing voting block. That would make co-chair Kacy Deschene and board members Jeff Simon and Michelle Langenfeld the liberal block.
It’s a distinction that some board members reject, while others seem to embrace.
Audette, in a lengthy criticism of the budget, district administration and his colleagues, said that negotiations were never entered in good faith.
“Recognizing the need for consensus, they’ll call for compromise, but will bring nothing of substance forward from their side,” Audette said. “All compromise will need to be made by those of us who do not accept their proposals … And so they’ll renew their calls to trust the experts. They’ll tell us that school finance is too complicated for you, for themselves, frankly for anyone to understand, and they’ll claim a moral imperative to let the public decide.”
“It’s easier for them to just trust the experts who just happen to share their worldview on virtually every issue that divides the board,” Audette added.
Arco said he’d vote to approve the budget because it’s in the district’s best interest. However, he asked his colleagues to consider a budget process next year where they could consider each line item and have a chance to remove it by board consensus.
“It seems like you would rather have the liberal members of the board be in charge of a bankrupt district rather than the entire board be in charge of a fully-funded district,” he said.
Simon rejected any partisan label for his actions.
“It’s not a left or right or conservative and liberal, it’s board members who trust our experts and believe in our experts and board members who do not,” he said.
Deschene also said she was uncomfortable with larger political agendas.
“School board service should be nonpartisan. The fact that some board members continue to bring politics and partisan perspectives is concerning to me,” she said.
Also See: Robbinsdale School Board Approves ‘Painful’ Cuts
