Third time the charm?
November 7, 2007
Tough crowd out here in Lexington/Richland District Five.
For the second time, our community rejected a bond referendum put forth by our School Board (the Board voted unanimously to support the referendum this year, while in the past the board was split). I had actually thought the referendum may pass this year - especially when the overwhelming majority of homeowners had seen (or will see this week) huge reductions on their property tax bills.
Asking $40 from taxpayers per $100,000 home was much, much less than the savings we in the SC Legislature provided in the Property Tax Relief Act.
Obviously with a 56% to 44% vote, the community is pretty split and I hope we don’t continue our divisive ways of the past.
I have to ask: if it didn’t pass this year, will one EVER pass?
I’m also wondering about School Board races next year in 2008. Will current School Board members (whose terms expire next year) offer their service again or do they feel unappreciated? Will there be another referendum next year and what impact could that have on any potential board races?
In my opinion several factors contributed to yesterday’s outcome:
1. “No” - generally, most people do not like “tax increases”.
2. “Confusion” - assuming the first item above, one must overwhelmingly convince people to vote yes for a “tax increase”. If there’s any confusion (and obviously during this campaign there was) the undecided folks will default to voting “no”.
3. “Growth” v. “No Growth” - this theme could be seen last year during the Richland County Council Race and I think it crept up again this year. When any issue gets painted as “developers and realtors” pushing it - it’s gonna lose here in Lexington/Richland School District Five.
Regardless how you voted, I’m glad to see more voters turn out and have their voice heard.
Comments
5 Responses to “Third time the charm?”
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We do see a property tax decrease but we know two things for sure:
1. Lexington county wide reassessment in 2010 (two years away and Richland to follow)
2. We are paying more sales tax(we just pay the property tax in another form)
Big Question:
What has the “Education Lottery” really done? Trim the fat out of this self imposed tax!
I wasn’t so worried about tax increases as I was worried about reckless spending from our school district.
I had very little concern with the small tax increase. Though I voted for it, I was very concerned that they wanted to build new schools in the middle of the country, where there was little population, where developers had tried unsuccessfully before to rezone for compacted neighborhoods. If you build the schools, the neighborhoods will follow. Build the schools where the population is, and try to trim the budget to what is really needed. This seemed like an extravagant wish list.
The school board was not up front with what they were going to spend the money on. There were generalizations but not real facts. Rich/Lex 5 district is greedy. Our property taxes may have gone down but give the schools a few years, it will be as high as ever. Read my lips…we are tired of tax increases and do not trust the honesty of the Rich/Lex 5 board. They are NOT good stewards of our money and I resent all of the waste. Our schools do not need “theaters” or plush environs. I voted no by abcentee ballot to be sure my voice would be heard. Rich/Lex 5 board, please get rid of your grandiose ideas. You will go a lot farther in getting funding for actually NEEDED projects.
I do not know the optimum size of a school. I do know that many advanced (AP) level classes are not offered at the three existing high schools in the district due to “lack” of students. The new schools that have been built in the district can not be readily expanded due to poor architectual design. We do not need Architect Award winning schools, we need student acheivement award winning schools.
Something the school board does not want to publish is the annual operating cost for these new schools. Go into any school and count the number of support staff (non teachers) that are required for each school. This is and annual cost that increases each year.
As for the property tax relief, I would rather pay property tax that I can deduct from my fereral and state taxes than a sales tax that can not be deducted. With a sales tax, the state get more income tax without a “tax increase”.