From Claire Leeds

Monroe

To the Editor:

Last fall, I tried to persuade my mother that the referendum would only cause a minor tax increase, excepting value changes. She didn’t believe me. Our conversation was embarrassing once I understood what went wrong. Then I paid my taxes.

It’s difficult to set aside the district’s communication defects surrounding the referendum’s cost to individual taxpayers. I ask you to briefly set them aside long enough to consider our limited options. The referendum is binding. The district’s lawyer stated on record that there is no legal process or precedent to repeal it. We have six years of sunk costs in the plodding work of district planning. The five solutions I’ve heard trouble me:

1. The lawsuit against the district will create a new legal process for referendum repeals. I don’t know if this is possible, or if there will be appeals to a higher court. It’s unrealistic to manage a district based on a nonexistent process.

2. We vote on a nonbinding referendum to cancel a binding referendum. The problem is clear from the names.

3. We can build on the existing site. The wording of the binding referendum binds us to buy, and build on, a new site.

4. We can pass an $11 million dollar referendum to fix MHS’s immediate needs. Legal precedent and the district’s lawyer state that referendums are cumulative. If we pass a second referendum our total taxpayer obligation, on contradictory projects, is $99 million.

5. We do nothing. We let MHS and Abe deteriorate until they’re no longer fit for purpose. Except that Wisconsin law requires the state to force solutions on unfit school buildings, including closure. State solutions are imposed at local expense.

The district started the bonding process right after the referendum to save on interest costs. No building site means no locked-in interest rate. Rates have since gone up, buying power has gone down. Soon the district will default for $2 million. A ruined credit rating means higher interest rates, if future borrowing is possible at all. Contractors will be wary of nonpayment.

There’s liability risk if MHS causes injury or illness to students or staff, or the board is sued to enforce the binding referendum. The defense of lawsuits with taxpayer money is expensive, and diverts funding from education.

I see expensive problems accumulating, while solutions disappear — a community dumpster fire we keep feeding with taxpayer money like it’s garbage.