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One of the most important duties for people that care about their country and its future is to ensure that the youngest generation receives a good education. This demands a wide range of services and activities among which is one of the more expensive - funding construction of new schools. Recent school bonds were lucky to pass to provide the Bend-La Pine School District with requested funds. In the November 2002 election, voters turned down a funding bond for the Central Oregon Community College for a second time in the year. The Redmond school bond for new construction and upgrades was also rejected for a second time in two years. Very few will deny the benefits these bonds would provide students. Nevertheless, there is always strong opposition to paying for them. The main problem is how we pay for these school bonds with the principal objection being that people don't want to have to pay higher property taxes. In many cases, property owners are bearing a heavy burden with the taxes they already have to pay. In too many cases, property owners are living in poverty and may have to cut back on their food or health budgets to pay for increased property taxes to pay for schools. Clearly, this is wrong to most people but, apparently, not to some. A possible major source of funding could come from collecting system development charges (SDCs) for schools when new homes are built. This has been a long-standing practice in California and Washington and in other states; although, they may refer to these charges by other names. The logic for this is eminently simple. Developers build large tracts of new homes that facilitate families moving into the community. This means more children being added to the school population, which in turn means a need for new infrastructure. These families are creating the need for new schools; they should pay a significant portion of the costs for these schools. With the current system in Oregon, these families pay the same amount as other families that, in some cases, are living in poverty and have had nothing to do with creating this need for new school buildings. A bill was proposed by Democratic legislators during the 2001 session to allow communities to collect SDCs for schools, but the bill went nowhere in a committee controlled by the Republican majority. See Oregon Communities for a Voice in Annexation newsletter. Scroll down to "ORS-195 - The Fight Continues" We also believe that property owners living near or below the poverty line should not be required to pay any property taxes attributable to growth. We also recommend that you visit the web site published by the Coalition for School Funding Now! See also the web sites for Friends of Deschutes County and Oregon Communities for a Voice in Annexation for their positions on SDCs for schools. Back to Education Home Page Back to Schools Home Page |
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