Informed decision best for borough special election

April 23., 2006

SPECTRUM/Tim Anderson

There will be a special election on May 2 asking the voters to approve school bonds again. It is not my intention to sway voters either way with this writing. My intention is to give voters truthful information so they can vote according to how they see this issue.

Several groups and at least one individual are putting out information supporting the school bonds. I applaud their efforts. However, they are giving the voters misleading information to suit their missions.

I take exception to this tactic. There is an old saying that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.

The first fact they are stretching is how much these bonds will cost taxpayers. This cost will vary in accordance with your property's assessed value.

The true estimated cost for these bonds is $34 dollars per $200,000 of property assessment per year. The $200,000 number represents the average home assessment in the borough.

All the campaign flyers being distributed in support of these bonds are saying the actual cost will be $25 per year. They arrive at this reduction by stating that an older bond issue, currently costing $9 per year, will be paid off this year. This is true, but they do not tell you that the borough's bond debt payments are just a small part of the area-wide mil rate used to determine how much your taxes actually will be.

So just because old bonds are being paid off does not necessarily equate to a reduction in this mil rate. This mil rate is set each year by the assembly based on all the financial needs of the borough as reflected in the annual borough budget.

The proposed mil rates for next year's budget were just released by the borough this past Tuesday in Ordinance 06-06. My first question to staff was: Are these proposed mil rates generating taxes that take the borough budget to the new tax cap? The answer was yes.

My next question was: So, then the reduction from the bonds being paid off is absorbed into the new proposed mil rates and there is no actual direct reduction? Again, the answer was yes.

To summarize, if the borough funds next year's budget to the new tax cap, there is no actual savings from the retiring bonds.

The second fact they are providing misleading information on states that passing these bonds will result in a savings of $26 million to the taxpayers.

To have an actual savings to the taxpayer, one has to assume the taxpayers would have to pay the full cost ($39 million) of the schools and improvements. That is just not true.

The only way the taxpayers would pay the full cost is if they first approved a bond issue with no state reimbursement. That never has happened and likely never will happen. So no savings exist, and this is not a 70 percent-off sale as some have stated.

Here are some other facts about this issue:

€ The state has authorized reimbursement of these bonds at either 60 percent or 70 percent. This reimbursement is subject to annual appropriation by the state Legislature.

€ The current state reimbursement authorization does not expire until Oct. 31, so these bonds could be placed on the regular election in October.

€ The special election on May 2 is costing taxpayers about $80,000.

€ If these bonds pass, the cost will not appear on your tax bill until 2008, and the cost will be assessed on the assessed property values of next year, not this year.

You will be receiving campaign literature, e-mails and most likely phone calls. The local governments by law can distribute only neutral information on elections. It is illegal to use any public funds and equipment, including e-mails, to distribute information trying to sway your vote.

Unfortunately, some e-mails already have been sent from school district e-mail accounts that likely violate this principle. However, school district officials did send out a notice, so it should not happen again.

The point here, as in most political campaigns, is the facts get stretched and twisted and presented in many forms. I was also once told that people vote based on emotions, so campaigns should be geared to evoke emotions. I find that insulting to the voters.

With every election, you need to make an informed decision. Seek out the information you need to make that decision, and get out and vote.

Tim Anderson is in his second term as mayor of the Mat-Su Borough.