The Vote “Yes” committee is admirably well organized and energetic, but we take issue with their signs that say to vote “yes” for Orcas schools. In addition to the public school, there is the Orcas Christian School, the Salmonberry School and the Montessori school. Parents and community members work hard to keep these organizations viable as well, not to mention the home schooled population on the island.
According to the Jan. 2010 letter by Superintendent Barbara Kline, the mill rate of the Maintenance and Operations levy is going from .36 to .61. Add to this the proposed .54/1000 for the bond and you have a pretty big .79/1000 increase for a total of 1.15/1000. I don’t think the M & O levy will go down in future years and the bond is for 25 years. With the aging population (sorry everyone) it means more of the tax burden will fall on the next generations. When you add the Social Security/Medicare/national and state debts burden they will be assuming it’s a huge portion of their current and future labor. We need to look at the big picture, not just our school district or our island.
When we vote on raising taxes, we aren’t just voting to for us to pay more, we are also imposing that on our neighbors whether they can afford it or not, whether they use those services or not. We are voting those taxes onto people who own property here but aren’t able to vote. We are also voting those taxes onto the next generation since the taxes usually don’t go away. We are voting “NO” on the school bond – for the children.
April Duke
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It is almost always not a good time to ask the taxpayer for more money. Unfortunately, this time we have to. To build public infrastructure and buildings such as roads, government building, fire departments and schools takes public money. This is a burden that we have to bear as we as a society benefit from burdens people before us chose to bear and in some instances we take part in the debt repayment ourselves for decisions made before us.
We are hoping that when the bond sells our interest rate will be less than what we are estimating now; so the .54/1000 will be lower.
I understand your concerns about the economy and the burden to the people who are currently hurting. Our school board consists of working people, we are not rich, we are property owners and pay property taxes, and we support the local economy: we shop locally for food, building supplies, and restaurants, medical and other professional services and engage local support services and more. We are members of community and school service organizations, some of us are small business owners, and support the arts, are graphics designers, software developers and computer geeks. So I really hear you. We do get stopped everywhere we go and are constantly challenged in the market, at the bank and other places. Many are wondering why we even dropped the amount because they see the buildings and understand that for whatever reason the middle school was built the way it was and they want us to build these buildings for longevity so that students can use them for the next 60 years.
More than 60 years ago Orcas Islanders built the Nellie S. Milton building, I am sure that they were burdened then and until they paid off the debt – they had a vision and that is lucky for us because the building is still in use today, even though it needs plumbing and heating systems replaced. We are not asking for grand structures for frivolous programs; we are just asking to replace buildings that have reached their end of life and will cost more to repair than replace.
I agree with the foresight and courage of Orcas residents of the 1940’s and their motivation to build a better life for their children, and, our children – yes yours and mine – our kids used these buildings.
I want us to leave this campus in better shape than we found it so that generations of students to come will benefit from our decision today.
Tony P. Ghazel
Parent of students who benefited from people’s burden in the 40’s, 80’s and 90’s and a School Board Member since 2004