Maine-Endwell Taxpayers Soaked $59.6M for Capital Project
By Jim Willis on May 29, 2008 in Education, Government & Politics, Taxes & Spending | Printable Version
Taxpayers from the Maine-Endwell School District are being shaken down to pay for new construction at the M-E school to the tune of $59.6 million. Yes, you read that right–nearly 60 MILLION DOLLARS. The money will be spent upgrading four school buildings, a bus garage, and building a brand new 8-lane swimming pool. Let’s hope there’s gold lining that swimming pool for the amount of money it will cost.
According to an article in today’s Press & Sun-Bulletin (M-E prepares to break ground on $59.6M project), some brain-dead M-E parents are “excited” about the coming changes. They’re brain-dead because they don’t even know they are the ones paying for it! They think “the state” is kicking in 75% of the cost:
State aid and money from a capital reserve fund will pay about 75 percent of the work, district figures indicate. The owner of a home valued at $80,000 will pay an additional $124 a year, factoring in the STAR exemption, according to the figures.
Translation: 75 percent of the money comes from the pocket on the left side of your pants, 25 percent comes form the pocket on the right side of your pants, 100 percent of it comes from YOU, the taxpayer living in the M-E School District.
As has been pointed out numerous times by Matthew Tabor in his excellent blog on educational matters (Education for the Aughts), these capital projects are 100 percent paid for by taxpayers. People think the money is coming from some nebulous entity (the “state”), or perhaps they think people in other school districts across the state are helping to pay for it.
The truth is, even though these projects are all put into one big pot of money in Albany, the money is redistributed across school districts and in the end, it’s about a wash. That is, the money comes from taxpayers in that district and is given back to taxpayers in that district in a ponzi-like scheme so you don’t realize it was your money in the first place. The politicians then line up to be patted on the back for “bringing the bacon home” to their constiuents for captial projects like this one. Wake up people!
Technorati Tags: Maine-Endwell School District, school capital projects, school taxes, ponzi scheme
Matthew K. Tabor | May 29, 2008 | Reply
There’s no reason for these districts not to be honest about where the money is coming from. School officials should make it very clear that they appreciate the taxpayer money used to help their district – the money that comes from within their districts and beyond. They don’t bother.
One would think that an obligation to one’s neighbors – next door and statewide – would compel them to spend as responsibly as possible. It’s ironic that the free-spenders, whose arguments are built on “for the children!” and “for the community!” pay so little attention to how their decisions impact the people they serve.