- By Hugh Bahar
- Opinions
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1. Taxes, Taxes, Taxes. The insults that New York State and Tompkins County continue to heap onto the middle class never seem to end. Burdensome is an understatement; oppressive and punishing seem to be more accurate.
Folks don't understand why New York has the highest property taxes in the nation, and until they get a sensible explanation of where all thier tax monies are going, they aren't going to vote themselves another tax increase. Not even for the schools which their children attend.
2. Three R's. Rightly or wrongly, the impression in the community is that a lot of the capital expansion was going to be focused on the performing arts. To those of us whom were closely involved in the capital project process, it was clear that much of the space was going to help with improving instruction in math, science, and many other subjects, not just the arts. A much larger community education effort(read: marketing) needs to be done by the BOE and by the schools to get this plan off the ground. Bemoaning the fact that few people show up to BOE meetings ignores the obvious need for better marketing and community education strategy.
3. Fear The Sewer: An individual that lives in South Lansing told me that his home has increased in assessment over $200,000 since he built it in 2002. He stated that his taxes are more than his mortgage, and that if an $850++/year sewer tax is thrust upon us, he may have to sell his home and move to a less expensive neighborhood before his children graduate from Lansing Schools.
Clearly, voters are worried about being able to pay for a school project, a sewer project, ever increasing taxes and utility bills, and stay in thier homes.
Again, these are the major themes that I heard among my fellow community members when I asked them why they didn't vote for the school capital project.
From: Hugh Bahar
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