Lawsuit seeks to halt one of Rochester's two levy questions next week

Hundreds of millions of tax dollars are at stake next week as Rochester residents head to the polls, though one citizen wants to get one of the area's two referendums off the ballot.

Casey McGregor, a massage therapy business owner and a member of a local anti-referendum group, sued Rochester Public Schools on Monday over the district's proposed technology tax levy.

The district is seeking a little over $10.1 million annually over 10 years — about $101.5 million all told — for security upgrades and new programs throughout the district as part of a capital projects levy. The levy would also free up $7 million currently used for those purposes to go into the district's general fund, which officials say would likely go toward staff to keep classroom sizes steady.

McGregor, representing herself, argues in the lawsuit the district's ballot question is misleading, saying the taxes would go toward operating expenses instead of capital projects.

"The whole scheme was to misrepresent an increase to flex spending as a smallish tech levy this year and renew a levy they promise voters would not be renewed without a vote," McGregor wrote in the lawsuit, referring to a recent Minnesota Legislature measure that allows districts to renew operating levies once without voter approval.

District officials say McGregor is confusing the type of levy going before voters. In a statement Tuesday afternoon, the district said it had met all legal requirements and crafted the ballot question through legal counsel.

"We look forward to the election and await the voters' decision," district officials said.

McGregor's lawsuit has no court date listed; it's unlikely the suit would stop the district's ballot question from going to voters on Tuesday.

McGregor is a part of the Say No To The Taxman Committee, a citizens group also fighting against the city of Rochester's $205 million local sales tax extension. The city's referendum asks voters to fund several projects over the next several years:

The sales tax extension would run over the next 24 years or until the city collected the $205 million, whichever came first. Rochester has had a local sales tax in place since the early 1980s.