Letter: Measure F is good for the economy
To the community,
Why should we care about investing in higher education in our local, state and national communities? According to a 2013 report by the Economic Analysis and Research Network in Washington, D.C., “States can build a strong foundation for economic success and shared prosperity by investing in education. Providing expanded access to high-quality education will not only expand economic opportunities for residents, but also will likely do more to strengthen the overall state economy than anything else a state government can ever do.”
Karen Borges
Additionally from the same report, “There is a strong correlation between the educational attainment of a state’s workforce and median wages.”
South Lake Tahoe has been searching for a solution to spur its economic development. A well-educated workforce is our key to prosperity.
Please vote yes on Measure F for Lake Tahoe Community College.
Karen and David Borges, Borges Chiropractic, Karen Borges is on the LTCC board of trustees
Quite the myopic and childlike view, Karen! Your argument reminds me of South Park’s Underpants Gnomes:
Step 1: Steal Underpants
Step 2: …
Step 3: Profit
except instead of stealing underwear, you’re taking property tax dollars with the pie-in-the-sky dream goal of ‘investing in our future’. Your list would probably look something like this:
1. Collect $40 million dollars in property taxes from Tahoe homeowners, the majority of which have never nor ever will have attended LTCC
2. Build some shiny new buildings
3. …..
4. Thriving community!
Education is a great, worthwhile cause, but SLT will never be a destination for college-bound high schoolers. Perhaps we should think about spending $40mil on a civic project that the whole community can truly benefit from, rather than on a resume bullet point for Karen?
I agree in investing in education, but, let’s look at the numbers. $55 million in bond proceeds, plus $52 million in state money, plus $57 million or so in bond interest, equals $164 million of taxpayer money. For that amount of money, we should be getting a whole lot more than what the Measure F proponents are promising.
Give us some bang for the buck and we’ll support you, but, $164 million for what’s outlined on the Measure F project list? Surely we can do better for the amount of money that would be spent.
Enough is enough…No
I’de like to see this mountain town concentrate much more on creating meaningful jobs and new business industry other than just tourism.
That kind of money SHOULD be spent creating an entirely new and vibrant South Lake Tahoe rather than wasting it on the elaborate wishes of a few.
Great education doesn’t come from lavishly throwing heaps of money at it.
NO on Measure F !
A well educated workforce is key to local economics but you must have local businesses which require that education. We don’t have it and until we do that argument is mute. Tee Shirt stores, restaurants, hotels, etc. don’t need an educated workforce because they can’t recover the costs of paying highly educated employees.
Why should local taxes pay to educate a workforce which leaves?
We need to first attract these businesses along with their educated workforce, then support them with future employees.
NO, NO and NNOOOOO. Pay for it yourself.
YES YES YES and YESSSSSSSS on F
Vote no of Measure F.
Come back with a scaled down version and I might consider voting for it.
The high school got a lot of money from Measure G and built a Sports Medicine building and a new theater. Were either of these facilities really needed at the high school level? We will be paying on that bond for awhile.
Easy to support yes on F.
7 to 2, the Nos have it – it’s a NO brainer, vote No on F!
Lucinda, you ask was it worth it putting that money into the high school? I bet to the students that were given the opportunity to learn about these subjects and gain some of the skills it was worth it. If we dont put money into helping our children learn and get skills in something other than serving drinks to tourists, well we have noone to blame but ourselves. Narrow minded people will live mediocre lives without offering anything back to our youth who are the future of our country.
Linda please don’t take website as a representative sample of the community. It isn’t.
Yes on F! The college is one of the best parts of SLT. I’m sure there were many naysayers when it was first proposed and now it is overwhelmingly appreciated. We need to have a larger vision of the future and get over this small town mentality and sniping.
“A larger vision of the future” should not necessitate stealing more money from the overwhelmingly working class citizens of this small town.
No on F
I don’t think a democratically voted on ballot measure qualifies as “stealing”. At least not by my definition. You may not like it but it’s not stealing.
Anytime dog has to contribute to the greater good of her community or state or nation she calls it stealing, socialism and communism. Yet she seems to benefit from having clean water to drink, sewers to carry away her s#_%, roads to drive on, emergency help when needed. She is just a hypocrite and whiner and finger pointer. And, we musnt forget, its all Obamas fault…..(sarcasm intended)
It never ceases to amaze me how some individuals actually believe that education is unimportant and that an investment in the future intellect of people is not money well spent. It is one world that we’re all in together and being uneducated will not advance the intelligence needed to improve the human and earths conditions.
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc
The missing phrase in the post from Critical is: “And then a miracle happens…”. It doesn’t work that way.
If the supporters are truly invested in the idea that the millions of taxpayer dollars from taxpayers will create financial success they should be materially and economically tied to those successes (or failures). Yes, put your money where your mouths are.
Next time you plan a ballot measure like this, put skin in the game by tying the success or failure to LTCC staff pensions, benefits and/or paychecks. Until you do, I will vote against any more spending. Many taxpayers are weary of paying for pie-in-the-sky projects that don’t work out. And when they don’t work out, all the supporters walk away and start planning their next waste of taxpayer’s money. But the money is gone, forever. The paradigm has changed.
BTW, being against this measure doesn’t in any way label anyone as thinking that “education is unimportant”. What we are against is using “education” as an excuse for excessive and unnecessary waste of taxpayer dollars. Education is too important to allow bureaucrats to continue to waste resources on intangible and unreachable goals. The waste has to be stopped.
Slapshot, I’m not considering this blog as a representative sample of the community, I’ve talked with many throughout who do not agree with Measure F. This includes friends, neighbors, colleagues, local government representatives, and even staff at the College iteself. I was simply stating the numbers represented on this blog.
Voter Information Pamphlet on Local Propositions, Page 09-903, Impartial Analysis of Measure F by Edward L. Knapp County Counsel, Paragraph 4, Second Sentence:
“The District’s best estimate of the highest tax rate required to be levied to fund the bond issue is $25 per $100,000 per fiscal year of assessed valuation and the amount of tax levied may be higher than the estimate if funds due for the payment of interest and principal on the bonds exceeds the best estimate of the tax rate to be levied.”
What about Prop 13 houses with assessed valuations that are a mere pittance of their actual market values?
To me this is sounding lopsided, unfair, open-ended, and poorly written.
4-mer-usmc
usmc, sounds like this maybe close even people in the same household cant agree, like yourself and your spouse. they do need 55% to pass not a simple majority.
4-mer, I also think that this tax may be collected a lot longer then 30 years. I agree poorly thought out and written.
One Time: You must be a renter.
Another advocation for wasteful spending from yet ANOTHER trustee – Is there a trustee that does NOT agree with this piece of PORK !
I am stunned that they all support destruction of additional habitat and open space for what gain? Is it worth it? NO. Be respectful of Tahoe and not take it for granted. This college should always REMAIN on its current footprint.
Any improvements should be done internally to the footprint and not be paid for by homeowners or renters.
Vote for the Lake — NO on MEASURE F
Slapshot: the definition of stealing is to take something from someone else against their will. Whether that is done by one criminal, or done by a group who agree that it will benefit themselves and others, does not negate the fact that it is theft.
Government gets away with many crimes that would not be tolerated if done by an individual.
It’s still immoral.
reloman:
Yeah–Spouse and I will be cancelling out each others vote on this one.
Fortunately we’ve learned to disagree without being too disagreeable.
4-mer
Well said critical….
Borges statement says a lot about the simplistic thought put into this proposal in the first place.
These trustees must REALLY think the voters are stupid and not analytical.
An educated workforce in a total tourist town is people who can make change accurately without a computer, come to work on time and regularly, and have some customer service skills.
Having had a business in Tahoe at one time I know the above qualities are very hard to find, and are not learned in college.
We need jobs outside of tourism to make a balanced economy. Seems like the impossible dream.
Guilding the lilly at LTCC will only cause an economic uptick during the periodic construction.
NO on F
Dogula
Here is the webster definition of stealing.
: to take (something that does not belong to you) in a way that is wrong or illegal
: to take (something that you are not supposed to have) without asking for permission
: to wrongly take and use (another person’s idea, words, etc.)
As I said before you may not like it but a legal and democratically voted on ballot measure does not in my opinion qualify as “stealing”. You can call it a tax a fee or whatever but it’s not by definition stealing.
So Slapshot, you DO consider that if one person takes something from someone, it is stealing, but if done by a majority group it is okay.
See if you feel that way when you get mugged by a gang. Which is what it feels like is happening to me every time a bunch of renters votes to raise my property taxes.
And here’s the #3 definition in MY Webster’s:
“to take or gain insidiously, or artfully”
Voting (and convincing others to vote) to tax other people for stuff you want would qualify. And make no mistake: this is a WANT, nowhere near a need. VERY few people will benefit from this tax.
Again Dog, your lack of basic understanding if the US Constitution is showing.
Try reading Article 1, Section 8:
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
Then read the Sixteenth Amendment:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
USA love it or leave it Dog.
“Which is what it feels like is happening to me every time a bunch of renters votes to raise my property taxes.”
A) Regardless of the fact that you view folks who don’t own property as urchins not suitable to vote, we still have the exact same rights as you do.
B) By virtue of paying rent to a homeowner we are basically paying those taxes for them, are we not? It’s basically built into the price of the rental, or should be if the owner had any business savvy.
So to recap, your argument framed in that context is moot.
Dog needs to go live in some other country and see if its any better. Im gonna guess not as she is still here. Whining all the way…..
I am a renter and I am voting no on Measure F. I don’t want to give my landlord a reason to raise my rent. Also, for the past several decades the government has been spending billions of dollars on education and what we have gotten is a dumbing down of our kids and college students. We have not gotten a good return on our investment.
Dogula should move to one of the many countries where her libertarian ideas have successfully been implemented and flourished… oh wait, of course there aren’t any.
And thanks Bubba for proving your own position on the “dumbing down”. Another part of the reagan legacy.
You know, guys, I don’t like a lot of your opinions either, but I don’t tell YOU to move somewhere else. It’s just you lefties who seem to want to shut up dissenters.
So tolerant of you.
Dog. I am pointing out to you that according to the US Constitution taxation is NOT “stealing.” You might be interested to know that the first recorded tax was in Ancient Egypt about 3000bc.
I met this guy once at the Peppermill in Reno just after the Bush admin. crashed the economy in 2008, we still communicate and I respect the 25% or so of his libertarian beliefs that first attracted him to the party.
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/28/why_i_fled_libertarianism_and_became_a_liberal/
The tax calculation amount for Measure F that a homeowner will pay will be based on the “assessed” value of their home, not the “market” value. If someone owns a home that is Prop 13, or was grandfathered as Prop 13, or is Prop 13 in a Trust, while the market value of that home may be $2 million, the assessed value could be as low as $200,000 depending on the circumstances of when that Prop 13 property was purchased. So people who bought or built a home in the year 2000 for example, with a present assessed value of $430,000 who pay the estimated $25 per $100,000 of assessed value for Measure F could pay around $135 per year, but a home on the Lake with a market value of $2 million with an assessed value of $200,000 because of Prop 13 would pay $50 a year for this Measure F tax. However, a recently purchased home right next door to that Prop 13 home valued at that same $2 million would be paying $500 per year for Measure F. Does that sound unfair to anyone else? And when property owners are taxed a specific percent of their “assessed” value on their property tax bill for other public services the same applies.
The upshot is that while the struggling middle-class continues to fight over the crumbs of Measure F many of the wealthy keep the cake and pay only a small fraction. But then it is the wealthy who write the laws and the applicable loopholes to keep their advantage.
Dog, the invitation for you to move somewhere else if you think HERE is so awful and all that happens is liberal obama lovers keep STEALING from you, is just that, an invitation, or a suggestion, or a nudge. None of us bloggers has the power to make you move (although that would an awsome super power). It just gets old and very predictable that your response is ALWAYS the same and its pretty obvious you are intrenched in your dogma (no pun intended).you are not a victim here, you give as much as you get on this blog
I beg to differ with Mrs Borges. Spending 100 million of our hard earned dollars for upgrades on our already nice college will do nothing to spur economic development in this community. It will, however, spur economic development to the out of area contractors who will likely take all the money.
Vote NO!