in which your narrator finds himself struggling to hold back the tears...

This time, I want to address the issue of affordability.

The Ohio Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down our current school financing system as unconstitutional and has called on the State Legislature to develop and implement a new system.  The Legislature has repeatedly failed to do so.  So, for now, we are on our own.

Let me start by reminding you that, in Ohio, assessed value  is pegged at 35% of appraised value.  So, if your home has an appraised value of $100,000 your tax on Issue 81 would be $209.65 per year, not the $599 some others have claimed.  

I know that there are some members of our community for whom that figure represents a serious hurdle; I will certainly notice it myself.  

For many of the more fortunate among us, buying a coffee twice a week at Stone Oven, Luna, Phoenix, or Starbucks would cost more.   Most folks spend more, considerably more, in fact, on cable, internet service, and cell phone service.  

But there are folks in our community who already go hungry, not because they’re spending their money on non-essentials, but because they have already cut their expenditures to the bone and there’s nothing else left.  No cable.  No home internet.  Some of them oppose this issue as a matter of social justice or economic equity.  That makes this issue heartbreakingly real.  

It leaves me with questions.  Lots of questions.  Questions about how we resolve the needs of the many when they conflict with the needs of the few.  Questions about long-term vs short-term realities in financing.   Questions about what we truly value.   Questions for which there are no easy answers.

I’m sure I’ll say things here that won’t be popular, that won’t be politically correct, things that will be uncomfortable both to say and to hear.  And as I’m writing this, I’m not yet even sure what they are, what they will be.  But I’m going to try to speak the truths I encounter.  

Stream of consciousness: is there any way we as a society can grant a temporary exemption to those who have fallen under the bus? Who have lost their jobs?  Well, unpaid taxes can and do become a lien against the property, and I suppose it’s up to us to set guidelines as to when we marshal those liens for enforcement.  If it’s social justice we’re after, though, everyone has to pay their proportionate share eventually.  Damn.  Can I send more to the hunger centers?  We already contribute regularly, but the need far outstrips our ability to keep up.  …  Maybe if this levy amount is enough to sink your finances, you’re already sunk?  But it’s not your fault your job was eliminated, and how would I feel if I lost mine?  Maybe sometimes you just have to realize you can’t afford something anymore, even though you once could.  But that sounds pretty cold, too, and it’s scary to say it out loud.  It’s not something I want to think about.   But then who’s being unrealistic here?  Anyone?  Everyone?  Me?   … “ The Ohio Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down our current school financing system as unconstitutional and has called on the State Legislature to develop and implement a new system.  The Legislature has repeatedly failed to do so.  So, for now, we are on our own.”  I said that, but what does that even mean?  Can’t we all at least be in it together?   And what would that mean?  …   Could we make this sort of levy a progressive tax, the way income tax is, or at least once was?  Nah, the State Supremes would never go for it.  Damn.  And besides, that only sounds good if you’re not at the top, I guess.    …Besides, that’s not what’s on the ballot. Damn… I don’t really think we could do a better job for enough less to make a difference.  How much could we cut per $100,000 appraised per month? Maybe $5 or $10 at most, if we’re going to get it done right.  Maybe even $20 if we bought into the “learning communities” concept, which I, for one, don’t much trust.  And even at that level, there would be folks who’d get pushed under the bus.  Scary.

And if we do nothing?  That’s scary, too. We could end up like East Cleveland.  Everybody knows it, deep down.  Nobody wants to say it out loud.  It’s too close, and it’s too true, and it’s too scary.  

At heart, Issue 81 is already a compromise, the result of many hours of sometimes contentious debate by a bunch of people who, however they came to be there, tried very hard to come up with a plan that made sense and had a good chance of actually working.  Do I personally support each and every aspect of it?  No.  But do I support it anyway, as a whole?  Yes, you already know I do.  Could we have pared away at it?  Sure, we could have eliminated the auditoriums, the sports fields.  We could have left the CTE students in exile, or just cut those programs entirely, I suppose.  But if we had done those things, would we still be Cleveland Heights?  University Heights?  What would that have meant, to deprive our children, and ourselves, of those public performance spaces?  Of those chances for full participation in campus life?  I don’t think I could stand that.  

As I wrote to a concerned citizen in a private e-mail exchange the other day, “ So, all costs [of daily living] are high, and our economy is under continual threat from right-wing political and economic jihadists.  The questions, it seems to me, boil down to these:

• will we sacrifice long-term operational savings and increased academic performance on the altar of short-term cost?

• will we look a poor child in the eyes and tell her to her face: watching HBO is more important to me than your education?

Sorry, I cannot do that, and I'll bet you can't either.  So we'll do what responsible citizens like us have always done.  We'll vote for the levy, tighten our own belts a notch, and find a way.”  

But I’ll cry, too, as I do it, because I know there are those in our community for whom this will be the final proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.  And I’ll do it anyway.  Damn.