Dorchester CARE Opposes School Referendum

Join Us and Oppose Dorchester District #2School Board’s Extravagant Bond Proposal!

Here is the handbill for Dorchester CARE:

• DD2 is proposing an extravagant $179,900,000 building proposal that is a poor example of money management to set for our children. 
• In the very challenging economy that we’re in, our children need examples of better use of the resources we already have and of how to build modestly where real enrollment growth exists! 
• But the school board of DD#2 is proposing a building spending spree! Many of the kids in school are future taxpayers. If this excessive proposal would pass, we’re confident they will look back at this event and see it as a “dumb” idea! 
• To fund the proposed spending spree DD#2 needs the voter’s approval and has scheduled an election of the voters on November 6 to secure authority to issue the bonds needed to fund it. 
• We know there has been some modest growth at DD#2 and would support a modest proposal to accommodate that growth. But to even get to that point, we first have to defeat this one. 
• And just what are the “real” costs of this proposal. With interest the district’s own financial advisor says it will cost $304.5 million to repay over 19 years of the bond’s repayment life. 
• According to district records, when added to our current obligations (including $242 million in Install Purchase Revenue Bonds) already on the books, this would obligate the district and local taxpayer to fund $608,500,000 of bond repayments! 
• The district is proposing an increase of 17 mills to fund the proposed new taxes needed to make the bond payments, for the next 19 years. That’s our burden! 
• This comes to $1,020 of new taxes each year per $1,000,000 of fair market valuation of commercial property. ($1,000,000 x 6% assessment x 0.017 Mills). Over the proposed 19 years this would equal $19,400 of new property taxes, per $1,000,000 of property. 

We are confident that a majority of voters will support our opposition to this suffocating new tax, but we need your support to help get our message to them. The proponents aren’t going down without a fight. Honestly, right now we need cash. We have a comprehensive message, plan and budget in place and are working with a consultant who has an 82% record of defeating such proposals, including a $236 million proposal in Aiken in 2010. Our plan can only be implemented with your financial support.

Please give the most generous donation you can, to help defeat this. And, according to the attorney for the SC Ethics Commission the consequences of a recent federal court ruling allows your donation to be anonymous. Past disclosure laws do not apply, according to the Commission. Thank you!