Please help defeat the MCS Referendum in
November!
Most importantly, be sure to VOTE! (A list of the
Voting Centers is attached)
By now, most should be
aware that both the Muncie Community School Administration and now
apparently the League of Women Voters are promoting the Muncie Community School
Referendum to raise the MCS Bus Fund levy by 267% with
fallacious fear mongering.
The voters need to be
informed with the facts.
MCS currently has a
current Bus levy that produces 33% more revenue as what they currently pay for
their bus transportation. MCS receives $3.7 million per year in local property
taxes for the transportation fund and pays about $2.5 million per year for
bus transportation. A $1.2 million surplus. They now want to raise that tax
revenue to over $9.5 million per year under the threat of the safety and welfare
of your children......that is simply
despicable.
The "minimal tax
amounts" to the taxpayers that the Muncie Community Schools are exhalting in
support of their efforts to add this additional tax will ONLY apply to RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY OWNERS and
utilizing all available deductions which, in actuality represents only a
very small number of the Muncie Community School
households.
Both the MCS
Administration and the League of Women Voters are trying to augment their
postures and arguments in support of the tax increase on the basis that we have
an extremely high poverty rate in the MCS district and that nearly 75% of the
children attending MCS are on free or reduced lunches. It's EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to recognize
that the majority of those poverty-stricken and low-income families DO NOT OWN the homes that they
reside in and will, in fact, be most negatively impacted by the tax increase!
The taxes on the homes that they occupy and pay rent on will increase between
$200 and $400 annually ($1,400.00 to $2,800.00 over the course of the tax
period) and most assuredly that additional cost will be passed on to them by way
of increased rents. So, if you're a residential homeowner protected by those
precious cost-saving deductions and are inclined to vote in favor of the
Referendum because the cost to you is minimal, then just be reminded that you do so at the expense of the most
vulnerable in our community!
What Muncie Community Schools is really doing with this additional tax
referendum is making one last-ditch effort to pick the pockets of the local
taxpayers in lieu of making the tougher decisions regarding consolidations and
cost cutting that they should have done years ago. They are blaming the property
tax caps for their problems, yet the tax caps have been implements for over 4
years! If the Muncie Community Schools can't come to terms with their bloated
budget after 4 years of tax caps, then they certainly shouldn't be rewarded with
additional tax revenues. There's good reason why the Muncie Community
Schools don't want to make any tough decisions regarding school closings and
consolidations BEFORE the election. They want YOU to bail them
out!
Over the course of the years, and directly in the face of over 12,000
good paying jobs leaving our community and the declining enrollment of
their school corporation to the extent that it is only about 1/3 of what it was
at its peak, MCS has continued to pour nearly $100 million in total costs
associated with sustaining the status quo. Now the chickens have come home to
roost and it's not the taxpayers fault, nor the taxpayer’s responsibility to
bail them out.
Voters beware and don't let anybody fool you, if this Referendum fails as
it rightfully should, and the Muncie Community Schools moves forward with
suspending bus transportation for our children, it's not because the money isn't
there. It's because they feel that there are more important things like
Administrator's pay and benefits as well as keeping half-filled schools open
rather than bus your children to and from their school. That decision, if it
occurs, would be reprehensible.
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