CHICKEN LITTLE MEETS PINOCCHIO

Subtitle: It’s obvious we need it, history dictates you

can’t be trusted to, or have an inability to, use it properly. 

Fall of 2014.  It was announced at a Pontiac School Board meeting that there was going to be a proposal presented to the voters in the District for a 2.87 mill, 5 year, tax increase.  It would be called a “Sinking Fund Millage”.  It would replace the 3.87 millage that was due to expire, thereby saving the tax payers money. This, of course, was their form of “voodoo” economics. OR as explained to me by a member of the school board, “they (the voters) should go for it”.

“If this millage doesn’t pass we will certainly have to close the schools down”. This was their talking point in an effort to scare voters into passing the millage.  My question was, if the average age of the districts buildings is 56 years and the district burned through all the money they had been getting for that 56 years, plus another $51.7 million (in debt), do you really think the voters will, “go for it”?          

Spring of 2015.  At a city council meeting in Sylvan Lake, the Superintendent of Oakland Intermediate School District, Vicky Markavitch, stated: “all the school buildings are in a state of disrepair.  The insurance companies won’t insure them because the district has no funds in place to repair the buildings.  If the buildings are not fixed students can’t attend (school)”.   Or to quote a famous chicken, “the sky is falling, the sky is falling.”  May 5, 2015 election. Proposal fails 4938 to 3401.   No schools closed.

Summer of 2015.  Throughout the summer PSD officials kept declaring, in newspaper interviews, public meetings and flyers, we must pass the sinking fund proposal or we will be forced to close schools.  August 4, 2015 election.  Proposal fails 2750 to 2634.  No schools closed.

Fall of 2015.  At a meeting of the Pontiac Rotary Club, on October 15, 2015, Superintendent Williams tells those in attendance, that if the voters turn down the 18 mill operating fund renewal and the sinking fund proposal in the November election “we” will go to court and the court will force the taxes on district voters. November 3, 2015 election.  Proposal is denied placement on the ballot because it’s illegal to do so three times in one year.  No schools closed.

Winter of 2015.  In an article in the Oakland Press dated November 21, 2015, stated “Voters will be asked for a third time to approve a millage to help the Pontiac School District repair its nine aging buildings.  The district will decide among three 2016 elections –March, May and August- but has not yet determined the exact election date.” 

Well, they have decided.  Both proposals will be on the ballot for the March 8, 2015 election. 

Once again, we’ve been told it was decided to go with the March election for two reasons.  #1. If it fails and they can’t get the courts to order the tax payers to fund them regardless of how it is voted on, then they have another opportunity later in the year to try again.  #2. If it fails they will have to close down buildings.

Finally…Pinocchio.  I would never accuse my friends in the Pontiac School District of lying.  However, I must say when it comes to “closing down the schools if these measures fail”, then you might want to check out their history on the subject, because it would appear to the casual viewer, at the very least,  they have only a nodding relationship with the facts.

“There is nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it”.  - William James, American Philosopher.