Note to George (regarding voter initiatives):
Our local school district passed a multi-million dollar bond issue a few years ago to fund a badly needed new high school.
The school district tightly managed the project and it is coming in under budget.
The district financial people ran a tight ship and managed to borrow the necessary money for less than the estimated cost.
Now, the tax revues that were passed from the project will be accumulating much more money than needed (about $700,000/year!). The district has proposed moving the excess accumulation from the building fund (where it isn’t needed) to a technology upgrade account (which is desperately needed.
So, the board placed a referendum on a ballot to transfer the funds.
The anti-initiative people placed full page ads arguing against the “tax increase” – which it was NOT!
The anti-initiative folks say that the kid’s don’t need computers, they should use pencil and paper just like in the good old days.
The anti-initiative folks wrote letters to the editor complaining about the districts bait-and-switch tax initiative.
The anti-initiative folks said if the kids need computer upgrades so bad, the district should have cancelled all the teacher pay raises.
The pro-initiative folks were represented by letters written by teachers and students “Please upgrade our computers, Thank You, Ms Jones third grade class”.
There were only three polling places, open from 10Am to 8PM on a Tuesday.
The initiative failed by 119 votes out of 3419 cast.
The county tax payers can now look forward to a tax decrease of $12/year while the kids struggle with out-dated techology.
der Brucer
