the following letter appeared in today's gannett/the town talk "your mail" (formerly called reader's write) section and we're posting it here because of the great comment left by "combineman" which is at the bottom.Your Mail: Where's the school?
Combineman wrote:
For the past two parish tax collection seasons I, and others in my area, have paid the property tax assessed for the proposed new school at Woodworth.
The tax associated with building the school caused my property taxes to increase some 35 percent. For two years that increase in millage has been collected.
Where's the school? It hasn't even been started yet. It is my understanding that the land that was to be given by the U.S. Forest Service had Indian relics on it, and could not be donated.
How long can the School Board collect taxes for a project that they have not begun, and apparently don't even have the property yet to build it on?
While they are waiting to find a place to build it, what about the inflationary cost of building the school? The initial call for the bond issue had a limit set for the amount of money associated with building the school.
While the School Board fiddles around, the cost of the project is going up. Are they going to ask for an additional tax?
I asked the District Attorney if there was a limitation of time that could elapse from the passage of a tax issue to the beginning of the construction of the project. I got no answer.
Are the citizens going to be assessed for the 20 years of taxes, and the school not begun to be built? What is happening to the tax money while we are waiting?
And, by the way, the citizens defeated the maintenance tax proposal associated with this school. So, how does the School Board hope to maintain it, even if it is built? Another building like the parish coliseum?
This is all ridiculous, just like those managing the project.
The collected taxes should be returned to the taxpayers as it is obvious that it is not on the front burner for the School Board.
And, some in office wonder why the public is against new taxes?
Could be this is a good example.
Richard G. Moriarty
Woodworth
AWWW Someone who lives in the biggest speed trap in the state is whining about money being unfairly taken from them.What a tragedy.Sounds like whoever collects the tax money also collects the fine money.Hilarious!
1/23/2011 7:40:19 AM
