In his STAR editorial this week, Chris Mertes says that the school board should go forward with a $3.9M referendum for a pool, equating the $20 per year property tax hike on a $200,000 home to "about six of your favorite coffee drinks".
First---and we have to get this out of the way-- Who in the HELL is buying coffee drinks that cost $3.33 a piece???? Some of have no interest in that mocha venti latte happy crappy. A wise old man, when I asked for cream and sugar for in my coffee asked, "Then why did you order coffee?" Webster's defines coffee as "a beverage made by percolation, infusion, or decoction from the roasted and ground seeds of a coffee plant ". That's it. Boiling water passing over ground coffee beans. And you can get $20 oz. at any Stop N' Go for $1.29 or less.
Chris is a decent guy...but he's either nuts or must make a pretty fat salary to support that kind of coffee jones. SP-EYE spoke frequently with Kaitlin Warriner, who used to write the Lifestyle and school columns. I guarantee you SHE couldn't afford to drink $3.33 cups of coffee. Now the $100K club? They most certainly can afford to drink high priced coffee to wash down their taxpayer funded pizza or Cousins' sub lunches.
Drowning in coffee
So...over the past 10-11 years, the community has gorged on coffees for:
- $ 188,760,000 in total building costs
- That's 216 of "your favorite coffee drinks" per year FOR 20 YEARS
- @3.33 piece = $722 of additional property taxes /year FOR 20 YEARS
...and THAT is why some people aren't jumping for joy about a pool that costs "only $3.9M" or "6 of your favorite coffee drinks per year".
Sure...a pool would be nice. And $20 doesn't seem like all that much...a movie (matinee) for 2 and a small bucket of popcorn. But that's really being disingenuous to the point here isn't it? The point is that for some folks, the camel's back has been broken.
SP-EYE: The school board has been quick to point out whenever they come in under budget on these building projects. Why don't they scale down the pool a little bit (The original Pool Task Force worked out a design with Bray that would meet WIAA standards and only cost $2.4M). Then, they could work with Bray and Findorff to slightly modify the high school design such that a pool could be included and still be UNDER the original $96M. Finally, with that in their pocket, they could go for a referendum to add the pool at NO ADDITIONAL construction cost.
...but THAT would be thinking outside the box.
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