Letter to | the Editor

To the Voters:

As I have struggled to write this letter the last few weeks and talk about all the educational reasons to support the upcoming bond vote, personally, I keep coming back to “it’s the money.”

I don’t remember a time a time from the past when this district could get so much for so little change in the tax rate.

The 10-year average levy rate for the district has been $15.93. This last year it was $14.49. If this bond issue passes, the levy is projected at $15.60. The way the board got the levy down for the 2017-18 year was by using some of the sales tax money collected statewide and distributed equally to Red Oak on a per-pupil basis – it was used to help make part of the Inman bond payment.

There is a “Catch 22” here. If the bond issue fails, the district will need to levy for the full amount of the Inman bond payment, which means a tax increase anyway. If the bond issue passes, the Inman bond will get paid off with the current sales tax dollars, but if the bond issue fails, the Inman bonds will get paid off over the next three years by property tax dollars.

Due to projected budget constraints of the general fund, this district will need to get to fewer attendance centers (fewer buildings), as most districts have done or are trying to do. If the bond issue fails, the current sales tax dollars on hand – that were used to pay off the Inman bonds – and future sales tax dollars may be encumbered to do limited improvements to the district. That may, and probably will, include renting or leasing portable buildings. After the limited improvements have been done, we will still need to do most of the major improvements, and any building additions that this bond is trying to accomplish. At that point, when this district tries for a $22 million to $23 million bond (approximately the maximum) instead of looking at an estimated $1.10 increase in taxes, the increase will be $4.05, the maximum amount for a school general obligation bond.

The Red Oak Community School District has a total budget of $17.1 million, with approximately $5.4 million coming from property taxes.

People may say they will never pass a bond requiring $4.05 levy in the ROCSD, but in 1967, after four failed attempts and the old junior high being condemned – and kids being bused to Coburg and Stennet for seventh and eighth grades – ROCSD did pass a bond issue for $1.9 million for the new high school. In today’s dollars, that would be $22 million to $24 million. On the third attempt in the 1990s and the closing of buildings to bring costs down, ROCSD passed a bond in today’s construction dollars that would be $23 million.

If you are seeking more information about the plans, go to the heroes17.com web page.

If you vote no for this issue, you are voting for a future major tax increase for all property owners of this district.

Roger Carlson, Red Oak