I read with interest the article in Friday's Cape Gazette titled "Cape superintendent reflects on school referendum defeat." It said, in part, "Fulton said he went through a range of emotions from frustration to anger to surprise after the referendum's defeat, when he said he thought he knew and understood the community. "
While I have not taken an official poll of those people who voted against it, allow me to offer four simple common sense reasons for the double defeat.
1. Very few people want to vote for higher school taxes when there is so much uncertainty about all of our property taxes being reassessed! We still don't know whether our reassessments will mean higher, lower or no change in our property taxes, a major annual expense.
2. When entire new schools have been built for $30 million, the thought of having our school taxes raised to pay for a $36 million swimming pool is very off-putting. It just doesn't feel right.
3. The thought of spending millions on a new administration building to house the highest-paid employees of the entire district also feels like a luxury in a time of higher inflation and general overall belt-tightening.
4. It seems like many Sussex County municipalities in eastern and western parts have raised their property taxes recently, my hometown of Milton included. Many of these increases are by local government edict – not by referendum. And many have been double-digit increases! So when the people have the right to say no on a school referendum, they sometimes exercise that right.
I think Fulton and his staff need to do a much better job of considering these four points before returning with their third attempt.
Editor’s note: A pool was only included in the first referendum.
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