August 2018

Sioux Falls School Bond issue incredible waste of education tax dollars

l3wis August 21, 2018 9Comments

I’m not naïve, I can see the writing on the wall. This special election with a small number of precincts will probably only get supporters out to support the bond issue. In other words my opinion is starting to change, they may just have a good chance of getting this bond passed by the 60% + 1 threshold.

But let’s face reality here.

One argument I hear a lot from my friends who support these bonds is that we need to spend MORE on public education. I couldn’t agree more. But where we fail on this bond issue is the incredible waste involved. Basically for every $3 of tax dollars expended, only $2 of it goes towards education. We are borrowing $190 million with $110 million in interest. The $110 doesn’t get spent on education, it goes straight from our wallets in the form of property taxes to bond investors. Not one single penny of it will be spent on education. What makes it even worse is that the bond investors live all over the country and possibly world, so that money won’t even get recirculated in our economy.

So you ask what the solution is? Well, I think we should take out smaller bonds that can be paid off faster using the capital outlay. While our taxes most likely will go up (there is No escaping that fact), this allows MORE money to go towards the actual projects instead of bond interest. It also stretches out the debt and tax increases. This is something Public Works Director Mark Cotter suggested during the task force meetings and was told they couldn’t trust Pierre. A horrible excuse to blow $110 million of tax dollars on bond investors instead of education.

The other sad reality is that this $190 million is only being spent on brick and mortar. There is no long term plan to staff the schools and where that money will come from.

I hope people wake up before September 18 and come out in droves to vote down this incredibly dubious bond proposal that only lines the pockets of banksters and does very little in helping education in our community.