School budgets make up 60-70 percent of expenditures in towns and cities. I have a plan to take an arbitrary figure out of everyone’s gross income and allocate it to schools. I believe that Florida has a school tax. For retirees, the figure would be lower.
Since the state has not met its 55 percent allocation for schools, funding has become a catch-22. Not everybody pays his fair share.
Ben Franklin should have added this to his wise phrases: Property tax is the root of all evil.
The catch is, how do we keep excellent teachers when, for the past four years, teachers have lost money. Property taxpayers are fed up with yearly increases. According to my representative, 40 families in Sabattus are paying $20 a month in order to keep their hard-earned homes. I am sure Sabattus isn’t the only town with that dilemma.
In the beginning, the state lottery was supposed to alleviate school funding. Alas, that money went into the general fund.
My plan would have everyone paying their fair share. My guess is that 25-30 percent of people are on town/city reports because they can’t or won’t pay their property taxes. Being an ex-teacher and a property owner, I can understand both sides.
I hope people will at least discuss my plan, because what we have now is a disaster.
George Ferguson, Sabattus
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