Letter to the Editor: Carmel School Board Has Been Deceitful Informing Taxpayers of True Costs
The Carmel Board of Education, in its annual budget presentation to voters, promised a tax increase in Fiscal Year 2020-21 of 2.6 percent. My new school tax bill shows that their claim was dishonest because the actual increase is 46 percent higher than promised, finally arriving at 3.8 percent and not the 2.6 percent as advertised. This is deceit number 1.
The board reserves unto themselves the right to lie and to deceive in order to further its own agenda and they do it all in the name of “what’s best for the kids.” In reality, it is what serves their own big-spending, tax-hiking ideas.
Deceit Number 2: The Carmel Board of Education, in jamming through the school bus garage bond referendum along with the property purchase, claimed that the tax increase would be as little as $11 a year per household. We get our school tax bill and find that for the second consecutive year the tax increase is in the hundreds of dollars. How did that work out for Carmel School District taxpayers?
Deceit Number 3: In official meeting records, the board reported that its unsuccessful attempt to remove a junior member of the board cost the taxpayers $6,810. This amount was also reported by The Journal News Tax Watch Columnist David McKay Wilson on June 28, 2018. In truth, the total cost was nearly $20,000. This was due to officials conveniently omitting the nearly $12,000 fee charged by the hearing officer, the cost of the stenographer and others.
Deceit Number 4: Beware Carmel School District residents of this one. The board, in all its wisdom, never thoroughly researched to confirm if the land purchased with the bond money was properly zoned for the construction of a school bus garage. Incompetency to the highest degree. Do not be surprised when this school board decides that it can ignore various town zoning and building codes because it believes, and have stated, that these rules do not apply to them. The result of this will certainly be costly litigation, the burden of which will once again be covered by district taxpayers. The board does not care how much of our hard-earned money it wastes to fulfill its agenda.
In summary, the Carmel Board of Education is incompetent, dishonest and engages in unethical and borderline illegal conduct. Despite the fact that we are experiencing a severe economic downturn due to the coronavirus pandemic, the board has once again kept to its decades-long practice of imposing never-ending tax increases on its residents, while surrounding school districts were able to hold the line on taxes. It is time that the residents of the Carmel School District rise up and say enough is enough and replace these tax-and-spend liberals.
Richard Arzon
Lake Carmel
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