I recently read in the paper that the Blaine County School District wants voters to renew the $62 million levy. I had heard rumors that they were going to do this but I was hoping that they knew the state of the economy. Apparently they are oblivious and completely out of touch with the reality of the present economic situation.
The country is in the worst recession since the Great Depression. Our county and all the cities are cutting back as much as they can just to survive. Construction is the slowest it has ever been and many, many people are out of work.
I read this spring that the school district wasn't worried about cutting back, that they were doing business as usual. The rest of the state's school districts were scrambling trying to figure out how they could keep running with a much lower budget. Obviously our school district already gets so much of our taxes that they don't have to worry. Their budget is the highest dollars-to-student ratio in the state.
To say that our taxes won't go up is a lie. Our taxes went up in 2000 and now they should go back to where they were without the levy. If the levy passes, our taxes will go up the same as they did in 2000.
The higher paid employees of the school district must not be affected by the recession. They have the same guaranteed income as they had before. To pursue passage of this levy at this time shows a complete disregard to the taxpayers and ignorance to the state of affairs.
Please vote "no" on this ill-timed levy, which, by the way, the school district hasn't even decided how greedy they want to be. There are no necessary building improvements needed and passage of this levy will not improve the education of the youth of Blaine County.
Jerry Hayward
Bellevue
