If something isn't working, the intelligent thing to do is to try something else. For example, hundreds of years ago, it was common practice for a doctor to "bleed" a patient to make them well. That is, they would try to remove the sick blood from the patient's body by cutting them and letting their blood drain out. Some doctors would keep bleeding their patients until they died, while the more intelligent doctors would try other treatments.
We have a similar situation today in the funding of education. The money from property taxes is not coming in fast enough to build all the new schools that we need, so school boards are constantly raising property tax rates. I am especially concerned about the Alpine School District. I have been attending the public meetings that have been held to discuss the problem, and I feel the need to sound a voice of warning to the citizens of northern Utah County: The Alpine school board plans to raise property tax rates every year between now and eternity! (Or at least until they kill the local economy.)
Yes, we need new schools. But it is far more important for people to have an affordable place to live than a place to send their children to school. And by using property taxes as their sole source of income, the school districts are forcing us to choose between the two.
It is time to stop the bleeding of property owners in the Alpine School District. If you don't want your property taxes to go up every year, for the rest of your life, please vote "no" Tuesday, May 8, on the $200 million bond.
Robert Higginson
Orem