Every year that we receive our tax bill just reinforces how the Belle Valley School Board, led by President Karen Kunz, engaged in multiple untruths to secure bonds for the approval of the new building. For example, we were told that if the school received any development grant, it “would be applied to reducing the cost to the taxpayer.” Well, since 2010, the district has received more than $500,000 each year in federal assistance funds to help defray the bond cost to the district taxpayers. That means the taxes for the bonds on a home with a market value of $150,000 should be reduced to approximately $70 a year.
If you want to know how badly you were deceived, do the math. Thirty-seven percent of your Belle Valley tax bill goes to pay for the bonds. So if your tax bill to Belle Valley is $2,000 a year, $740 of that goes for the bonds. That is approximately 10 times greater than it should be based on their promises.
The board’s conduct should be criminal. To me such behavior is far more egregious than a host of other crimes that carry jail time. In some parts of America Kunz would have been ousted from office in disgrace, but at Belle Valley she is re-elected unopposed and reappointed president. This can only happen because the voters in the Belle Valley School District are abnormally apathetic.
The fact that the board knowingly exploits such apathy is pathetic and shows the lack of values, principles and ethics.
Ted Farmer
Belleville
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