Saturday, January 30, 2010

Norman Turner's Letter to the Editor 01/27/10: Support the Bond for Our School

It's a no-brainer, really. If the New Paltz Middle School isn't replaced now, we taxpayers will be throwing more money into an outmoded building that costs plenty in energy bills and frequent repairs. That doesn't make a shred of sense. And what will it cost us to deal with the problem further down the road? Does anyone really believe that interest rates are going to stay at their current low?

Watch out for the misinformation, some of it deliberate. Instead, do the math yourself. The numbers are right there on the District website. There's no reason to think them wrong. The total projected cost of the bond, with interest, is about $34 million, not some crazy number people are yelling about. The average cost per year to us, if we happen to own a house valued at the median of $297,700.00, is $162.60. We all get sticker shock when we open our tax bills, but that's partly because we get hit with a lump sum. $162.60 a year is around 45 cents a day.

We've been presented with a good plan for something that must be done. Getting bogged down in endless controversy and delays would be a costly mistake. Yeah, the taxes are painful, but that's an Albany problem more than a local one. It's Albany that does state budgets, state taxes and state aid to school budgets and capital projects, not school boards. Saying no to this project won't bother a single politician.

Send Albany a message by voting against State legislators. Let's clear that mess out. But support the bond for our school.

Norman Turner
New Paltz

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