Dear Editor:
This is an alert to the school board: the taxpayers are tapped out with any new property taxes. To start with, the state workers (Cole County/Jefferson City's largest employer is the state) lost their 1 percent to 2 percent pay raise by the raise in Social Security tax by the federal government. The taxes we are already paying on our property does not equate to the value of our property. Most properties have been devalued by the housing bubble, but the property taxes haven't fallen.
A lot of people are barely making it from one paycheck to another. More importantly, their hard-earned money goes to pay the mortgage or rent, groceries, gas and utilities, etc. Even if they are paying rent, if property taxes go up, so will their rent. Has the board even considered what kind of economy we are all living in? Stagnant, to say the least, much less Obamacare with all the taxes attached to it this year, next year and beyond.
The people I have talked with about this added tax, tell me no way. I agree, this is not the time economically to raise property taxes. And too, what about all the parochial schools and their students? They are not bused to school or financed by anyone's tax dollars, but yet the parents are still paying property taxes.
It seems to me, the school board needs to rethink their "dream" campus school(s) and do what the taxpayers have done, cut back and take austere measures if need be. I just want the council/chamber and school board to stop with all the tax measures, annexations, conference center, etc. The taxpayers have grown weary of the constant wanting of more taxes, while really doing little for their constituents.
And, by the way, I understand the need for a new high school, but with the economy like it is, this is not feasible at this time. I was a 1964 graduate of Jefferson City.