Vote in Favor of Levy…

Dear Editor,

Please vote IN FAVOR of the new school levy on March 14. This two-year levy replaces the old, expiring levy. It is a bare-bones, minimal increase of approximately 2 percent on just the Lake Pend Oreille School District (LPOSD) portion of your property tax.  For a home assessed at $250,000 with the homeowner’s exemption, it is only a $6 increase in year one (2017-18) plus an additional $6.00 increase in year two (2018-19).

Even with a new levy, the school district will have to cut in the range of $600,000 for next year.  Without the new levy, there will have to be additional cuts of about 165 full-time positions, elimination of academic and athletic extracurricular activities, schools will have to be consolidated, and class sizes will become overcrowded.

It is a shame that the state of Idaho does not see fit to properly fund our public school systems, so that we wouldn’t need these local levies.

I know there are probably some Tea Party extremists, Redoubters, and others who would like nothing more than to see our public schools crumble. We must not let this happen.

So get out on March 14 and vote IN FAVOR of giving all our children and grandchildren a better future —and— a better life through better education.

Philip A. Deutchman
Sandpoint

While we have you ...

... if you appreciate that access to the news, opinion, humor, entertainment and cultural reporting in the Sandpoint Reader is freely available in our print newspaper as well as here on our website, we have a favor to ask. The Reader is locally owned and free of the large corporate, big-money influence that affects so much of the media today. We're supported entirely by our valued advertisers and readers. We're committed to continued free access to our paper and our website here with NO PAYWALL - period. But of course, it does cost money to produce the Reader. If you're a reader who appreciates the value of an independent, local news source, we hope you'll consider a voluntary contribution. You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.

You can contribute at either Paypal or Patreon.

Contribute at Patreon Contribute at Paypal

You may also like...

Close [x]

Want to support independent local journalism?

The Sandpoint Reader is our town's local, independent weekly newspaper. "Independent" means that the Reader is locally owned, in a partnership between Publisher Ben Olson and Keokee Co. Publishing, the media company owned by Chris Bessler that also publishes Sandpoint Magazine and Sandpoint Online. Sandpoint Reader LLC is a completely independent business unit; no big newspaper group or corporate conglomerate or billionaire owner dictates our editorial policy. And we want the news, opinion and lifestyle stories we report to be freely available to all interested readers - so unlike many other newspapers and media websites, we have NO PAYWALL on our website. The Reader relies wholly on the support of our valued advertisers, as well as readers who voluntarily contribute. Want to ensure that local, independent journalism survives in our town? You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.