From Dan Mulder

Monroe

To the Editor:

My wife and I moved to Monroe almost 5 years ago and have lived in Green county for over 20 years. I often tell people I wished that I had lived here all of my life as we love it here. However, Monroe is pricing us out of the community with ever increasing property taxes. I am 69 years old and still working in large part due to the inflation and cost of living with national inflation harboring at 10%. Now Monroe schools are seeking to pass an $88m referendum which is projected to raise my property taxes by over $600 a year. My income won’t raise by $600 a year and this is on top of record gas, food, and medical increases. My wife and I have no children in Monroe schools and we have never had any in Green county schools. Every year in the 5 years we’ve lived here our property taxes have increased. If the mill rate didn’t increase our property value was reassessed. If we put a new roof on the house we get reassessed. It never ends. If the referendum passes our property taxes will be close to $7,000 a year. Five years ago they were about $5,200. Based on the increases we’ve endured should we expect in another 5 years our taxes will be $8,500, 0r $9,000? When you head out to vote in November please vote NO on this referendum and ask yourself: “Will my income increase to offset the property tax bill this will create?”.  Monroe is taxing us out of our home. The “next shoe to drop” that no one is talking about will be that the teachers need big pay/benefits increases which will like come right on the heels of this referendum. Again, more tax increases. 95+% of my neighborhood is retired homeowners likely on fixed incomes, no kids in schools. Unless one of them won the lottery I don’t know how they can continue to endure these increases. Like me, I doubt their incomes increase to offset these property tax increases. Monroe is taxing us out of our home.