Dear editor:
I urge everyone to vote against the Lakeside millage on or before the 22nd. While the millage rate may be marginally lower than the rest of the schools in the area, their tax receipts (the total dollars collected) are among the highest in the state for a school their size (plus or minus 500 students). This is a function of the property values in the district. Would you rather have 50 percent of a nickel or 45 percent of a dollar? Claiming poverty because the millage rate is the lowest around is disingenuous at best.
This has got to stop, the school districts spend their capital improvement budgets on athletic facilities and then come begging for money on academics. This is like someone trading their EBT card for cigarettes and then begging for food.
Lakeside gets plenty of money and if they built academics buildings first, rather than trying to keep up with Lake Hamilton's sports complex, then we would already have a new junior high building. Focusing on athletic improvement first is wealth redistribution at its worst.
This tax increase will cost many people hundreds of dollars per year. Is taking a retiree's money each year to buy an indoor practice facility and new basketball arena fair? While these aren't in the "stated" plans, they are being requested by parents and school board members for the near future.
I am not against education improvements; I am against giving the school district a blank check for the next 30 years so they can redistribute wealth. Please send a message to the school that they need to live on a budget like the rest of us and can't keep on robbing Peter to pay for Paul's new sports complex.
If they genuinely can't go on without an increase, then the ballot needs to be rewritten to require the spending be limited to only those authorized projects and if the bond is paid off early, then the millage ends.
Ben VanWagner
Lakeside School District resident
Editorial on 05/20/2018