Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Scare Tactics in CCSD

In Tuesday's P & C [see Board Commits to Finding Funds]:

At its latest meeting, the Charleston County School Board of Trustees "unanimously agreed to either ask voters to pass a sales tax or property-tax increase later this fall." [Sorry, Diette--parallel structure alert: "to ask voters to pass EITHER a sales tax OR property-tax increase"]

In this economy tax increases should be really popular. The Board's message to the public will be that, without tax increases, children will die.

Take the left-over capital funds and design upgrades to the seismically-challenged buildings. The plans can rest on the same shelf with all of the ignored redesigns of District 20.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why does the Charleston County school district need to use either tax increase? The way they are presenting this is tax payers have one of two choices and both envolve a tax increase. With better planning and conservation of resources, why not pursue the third choice? Operate within the debt limits established by law? They seem to be throwing this choice under the bus by saying it will "only bring in $100 million" for capital improvements, but they want $500 million for new buildings. Then Michael Bobby suggests we go for a one cent sales tax increase which he says will bring in $1.5 BILLION. Are these people drunk? How much do they need? How much can they talk us into giving them? Stick with the legal limits. Forget a voter referendum (unless they want to see a real defeat at the polls). Hasn't the $750 million they have spent in the last 9 years been enough? Or does Bill Lewis still have more of his retirement plan to pad?