Prop. 1 is bad for schools

Everyone knows schools cost money. Whether we have kids, our kids are grown or don't have kids, we know we have to take care of the education of the children of our communities or we are headed for trouble.

Mat-Su Borough Prop. 1 endangers school funding. It creates a system where people can sue the Borough or cities (that's you and me and all the other taxpayers) for potentially millions of dollars. Any time the community enacts (or has enacted) land use regulations, comprehensive plans, conditional use permits or any other planning tools to protect our homes and neighborhoods we can be sued.

Even if there is never a single claim paid, the cost of just administering Prop. 1 will cost hundreds of thousands of our dollars. This will divert funding from essential services like schools, police, fire protection and road repair, and will put that money in the hands of lawyers and bureaucrats.

Don't think it can happen? It already is happening in Oregon. Evidently, this is where the sponsors of Prop. 1 found their inspiration. The department administering Oregon's Measure 37 saw a 38 percent increase in costs ($4.4 million!) and a 10 percent increase in full-time staff positions just to respond to all the claims. And that doesn't even include potential payouts amounting to billions of dollars or the attorneys handling the nearly 300 claims currently pending in Oregon.

This is all at the expense of taxpayers. These are real expenses paid by real taxpayers. Just imagine what something like that could do to school funding in the Mat-Su.

If you don't want to see school funding cut further, then prepare to say goodbye to the tax cap and hello to higher taxes. The money to administer and pay the claims from Prop. 1 will have to be paid by Mat-Su taxpayers one way or the other.

As a Mat-Su resident for more than 20 years (and more than 30 years in Alaska), I am

asking you, please don't be fooled. Vote “no” on Prop 1.

Gini King-Taylor

Retired Mat-Su teacher

Mat-Su Valley