Footprints

by Budd Glassberg

Reprinted with permission from the Zionsville Times Sentinel on December 12, 2007

A Taxing Thought

If you have been around long enough, you have seen the pendulum swing several times. The political swings are a citizen’s natural reaction to laws and policy that have gone too far in rectifying a former imbalance. It is nearly always the case that measures taken at the zenith of a swing are too strong a reaction. Then, within a few years, those corrections are in need of change in order to bring things back into balance. While the pendulum swings can be a comfort to our community’s and nation’s equilibrium, perhaps fixing certain problems with an adjustment rather than a major overhaul would be sufficient.

Recently, the property tax increases have been a major concern in our community. Residents who are angry about their tax bills are blaming elected and appointed members of our local government. They are frustrated with a newly constructed school sitting dormant, the purchase of a golf course and the expansion of our community’s library. Claims are that these expenditures were unnecessary and that local government officials should not be spending their tax money on these frivolous things. Officials are accused of being spendthrifts with other people’s money.

Property tax relief is needed. It is needed for members of our community who cannot afford the current tax increase and may be forced to leave Zionsville. There are others in the community who do not use the above facilities and therefore believe they are unfairly burdened with the expense of the purchases and maintenance. They may not have children in Zionsville schools and would like to see minimum expenditures for our schools. They may never visit our parks and therefore do not care to see their tax dollars spent on public land that will only be used by others. They may not see the benefit of a library larger than the one we had several years ago on Hawthorne Street. Many of these angry tax payers have joined together to attempt to change the spending by writing letters to the editor of the newspapers and getting involved in public meetings to give their input.

The pendulum has been here before. Years ago, we had a different make-up of our school board. The board members reflected the voters desire to ignore census projections for the high school and save taxpayer’s money by not building a new one. As predicted, the high school soon reached capacity. A costly renovation was needed to handle the burgeoning student population. Ultimately, the cost of this piecemeal approach was far greater than what it would have cost to build a new high school. Three of those board members left office with a legacy that is still burdening tax payers today. Current board members provided the buildings based on projections given them. The Anson development delays have caused the one school building to be dormant this year. It will reopen next year. Had the school board not built the facility and if Anson had been on schedule, parents would have been angry over their children attending school in portable classrooms. Census predictions in a growing community forces elected officials to shoot at a moving target. Hitting a bull’s eye is a difficult proposition.

I have been going to Zionsville Parks Board meetings now for over a decade. I welcome the public input encouraged by the irate taxpayer group. There are ways that our community could save on property taxes. Maybe these upset citizens would like to volunteer some of their time, as members of that board and its committees currently do in order to hold costs down. It has been very lonely at most of these meetings where the park’s board has asked for community input. Much can be done with community involvement. Alan Gribble was able to organize the community to build the wonderful playground at Pleasant View Elementary school in 1997 with donated materials and labor.

After reading a preponderance of letters attacking our local elected and appointed officials, one might assume that those letter writers reflect the majority of the community. I speak only for myself in stating that I do not share their anger. I am pleased with the education my daughters have received here. I love the parks we have and would like to see more land preserved for that purpose. I appreciate our library and find it to be a tremendous resource to our village. Getting involved in our community’s activities is an excellent way to solve our taxing problems rather than just complaining about the way things have been done.

Budd Glassberg is a 23 year resident of Zionsville who works and volunteers in the community. Visit www.runz.com for reprints of all his columns. You can reach him by email at budd@runz.com.