Letter to the editor: Costs keep rising

Talk about it

You can tell it’s spring in Lake County because the grass is turning green, trees are budding and we again will vote on a school referendum.

First of all, I believe we need to generate revenue for our schools. I don’t believe that I would vote for Question No. 1 for this reason. If we are in the hurts and could possible have to lay people off, I can’t see why until the state kicks in the money it should be up to our schools operating an expensive swimming pool and paying for extra curricular activities.

A lot of the schools in the past that graduated students and went on to put men on the moon and jet airliners in the air did not have very expensive football fields, hockey arenas, and swimming pools. What does a expensive pool have to do with better educated students. Scrap that part in all future proposals.

One other reason not to vote ‘yes’ is that it’s unfair taxation. Every paper that comes out uses the figures you will have to pay geared to a $100,000 house. What people don’t realize is the fact that the average house in Crystal Bay township is in the $75,000 area and the average home in Beaver Bay township is close to $200,000. I would encourage every one to log into www.parcelinfo.com to see this. Click on Lake County and you will be able to put anyone’s name in the box to see what his or her property or building is assessed at.

I am paying $273 on just school taxes alone. If this referendum passes it will be something like $463 a year.

Lets not play with the numbers on this issue to make it look like very little. We are told that this tax is based on property values. My property value went down a little from 2009 to 2010. The funny thing is that my school taxes went up.

I asked a school board member why this is happening but he didn’t have an answer. I think that people in Lake County should do some homework on how their property is evaluated compared to others because it will not be the last time the schools will be asking.

Check out the Web site and contact the proper people to get the property values in line. The values in Beaver Bay township are not because they are worth that but because of the way they look at the properties, which is totally wrong.

From Bob Curry, Finland

Tags: two harbors, letters to the editor, opinion, levy