So, my school district is running a bond election this year.

[donco6]

We had a meeting tonight to discuss the pros/cons of going for a bond election to fix our aging, 50-year-old schools. Here in Colorado, bonds are paid through property tax mill levies. Residential property is assessed at a much lower rate (around 7.5%) while businesses are assessed at 29%. So we had a room full of disgruntled businessmen, saying this just "wasn't the time" to consider raising taxes (like any time ever is). We went through all the calculations on how much additional tax property owners would pay. For a typical home in this area, the tax increase is about $7/month. For a business, for each $1 million in property value, the tax is about $150/month. They were very upset at this.

The thing they seemed most upset about was the fact that, while they didn't live in the district and couldn't vote there, all the voters are low-income renters and DO get to vote (we're a very low-income district).

It's going to be an interesting election year.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. I can see where the businesspeople would perceive an unfair disparity.

However, they ultimately benefit from having good schools in the districts where they do business. They should keep that in mind.

It's funny but here in AZ we have the exact opposite situation, where homeowners bear the burden of school funding and businesses get off easy.

Edit: I'm wrong about that. Homeowners are assessed at 10%, whereas businesses are at 24%. It went down recently, so I mistakenly assumed businesses were paying much less than they were.

[LWolf]

2. We passed one in May.

This area has grown rapidly, and the high school is bursting at the seams. That, and a couple of older, crumbling schools (mine is one,) prompted the effort.

This is a conservative area, and the falling economy has hit us HARD. It was a huge bond; we'll get a new high school, a new elementary school, a major renovation to another old school, and another new elementary or K-8 when the high school vacates the EXTRA school it's filling now.

I'm still shocked that it passed.

Good luck.