School District taking 50% more in taxes than necessary.

Your current District 22 School Board is taking more money in taxes than needed.  The School board has purposely set the tax rate almost 50% higher than the amount needed to make the existing bond payment.  Every property owner in the district is now paying almost 50% more property tax than necessary.

The School District has been collecting more money than necessary for the last 8 years according to an email from the district finance officer. 

This year Mary Anna Clemmons and Ernest Hudson (two individuals running for the school board), began asking questions about the existing 2004 school bond.  No one could or would answer the questions at first, and both Mary Anna and Ernest Hudson continued to dig into the problem.  What they discovered was that  the tax payers in the District have been paying almost 50% more in taxes than the amount required tomake the bond payments.  The school district has been collecting almost 50% more in taxes than was needed for the last 8 years.  Now after several months of not saying anything, the board is saying that it was the plan all along.  It was done so they could pay off the existing bond early.  I don’t think so.  How many voters do you know that would say “take more money than necessary in taxes, and think about paying off the bond in ten or twelve years?  When you go to the gas pump, do you want to pay almost 50% more for the fuel?  When you go to the grocery store, do you want to pay almost 50% more for the food in the hope you might save some money in ten  years or so?

This is just one of the many reasons why this school board should be replaced. 

If I am elected to the board, I promise to vote to stop the over payments, and lower your property taxes by almost $240 per year for the next 8 years.  If you vote for the new bond to build the new middle school, your taxes would go down by about $170 per year for the next 20 years, and we would be able to build the new middle school.

This is a far better deal than the “no higher tax statement that the current board is now making Using their mind set your taxes will not go up if you vote for the new bond.  Of course it will not go up, because they are already taking 50% more than they need…but they plan on continuing to do that for the next 20 years...