A few additional observations from the work session video, and randomly:

• Can you imagine, in another year as rainy as this one has been, having students at Renfroe transition from 20 trailers to the school building, several times a day, in an orderly fashion, during down pours?

• Imagine the challenge of coordinating emergency preparedness for tornadoes and the like with students in 20 trailers.

• Devry, year round calendar, and split shift sessions appear to have been discussed as alternatives by the school board. I still believe the idea of acquiring the ATT property on College remains a viable one.

• It’s becoming clear to me we’re not dealing with a bubble, but a new baseline of a student population.

• The idea of developing a technology corridor/midrise commercial district (along E. Howard from Trinity to Commerce?) aimed at recruiting new tax revenue generating commercial property, and business taxes to help offset some of the homeowner tax burden seems interesting to me.

• There are likely cheaper short term alternatives to the plan being proposed, but given the long term implications of our growth, I don’t have a lot of confidence that there exists a significantly cheaper long term solution.

and lastly,

The thoroughness of the thought and work put into the proposal was impressive, as well as the sense of stewardship the board expressed for our kids as well as our community’s financial resources—they went into this knowing there would be lots of financial scrutiny, and, I believe, developed a solution that was as sensitive to that reality as it could be while accomplishing its goals of accommodating our growth.

I certainly won’t cheer higher taxes, but I won’t feel I was uniformed about the process and justification that led to them.

I am not a fan of extra homestead exemptions based on age (but ask me again in a few years…). I understand that a growing tax bill can be a burden on a fixed-income household. But there are other ways to address this, like “circuit breaker” legislation that cuts off appraisals from going too high, too fast (but that has to be addressed by the GA Legislature). But I’m open if anyone has a more compelling argument than an overly high tax burden, which other age cohorts could claim.

I know it’s an easy vote-getter to say you will reduce taxes for the elderly. But the funding mechanism for schools is primarily property tax shared by all property owners, right? I think all property owners regardless of age (or the presence of kids in the system) benefit from an educated population (though YMMV).

“I paid for my kids for 13 years why should I have to pay anymore rabble rabble…” I know. It seems a little unfair. But if everyone regardless of age is actually taxed at the same rate then it is kind of fair, right?

Now, if we want to keep those extra homestead exemptions then I have an idea that could offset that lost revenue: just get rid of property tax exemptions for religious property…

/ducks head

I believe it should definitely go to a vote in November. There are not a significant amount of new insights we are likely to get with another year of reflection, but we are likely to see costs increase as interest rates rise and construction becomes more challenging as trailers begin filling the space around the schools.

While I am open to listening to alternatives, I believe the CSD did a good job making the case and doing due diligence. The price tag is very big, and we should aggressively pursue options to temper how much of that bond is actually consumed. But I really don’t think there is any way to avoid the fact that our schools need to accommodate unprecedented growth. the only way to slow that growth is to make the schools worse, and that is not an option.

Pat brings up a fair point around harvesting other sources of revenue besides further increases to the residential tax base. That can mitigate the impact to residences, but we are all going to feel the pinch.