More to the millage story

Dear editor:

I am a physician and like most of you, not an accountant. So it has been very difficult for me to really understand what the Lakeside School District is proposing on the ballot. Since my previous letter to the editor, I have had innumerable iPhone messages with Shawn Cook, the Lakeside superintendent, to try to understand what the increased millage proposal actually says and does. I hope I can explain it to you in simple English (mathematics).

The new bonds, which will mature in 2048 (30 years), have a principal amount of $48 million. Previous millage increases already totaled 12.7 mills to cover previously issued bonds for Lakeside improvements totaling $30 million. According to Mr. Cook, $7.2 million in bonds will be refinanced, but $23 million older bonds will not, leaving $23 million older debt. All these older $30 million in bonds were to sunset (mature — paid off) by 2036. When finished, the taxpayer was promised that the millage would decrease by 12.7 mills since interest and principal payments were finished. So that you know, the proposal that will be voted upon on May 22 allows the previous bonds to be refinanced (as if they were brand-new 30-year bonds) and, therefore, continued for an additional 12 years (to 2048 instead of 2036) thereby adding back the 12.7 mills to the new 4 mills. The $23 million old debt (bonds) will be added to the $48 million new debt (bonds) for a total increased indebtedness of $73 million.

I will bet that few understood what is really being proposed; I sure didn’t. Instead of your taxes going down in the future as promised if this bond issue passes, these taxes (12.7 mills) will be extended an additional 12 years, plus the additional 4 mill tax for 30 years (16.7 mills total).

In addition, the Lakeside School District, on April 25, 2018, as required, printed a lengthy Legal Notice in The Sentinel-Record, informing the public of its plan to have this millage increase on the May 22, 2018, ballot. But, the title of the Legal Notice was “Annual School Election in Lakeside School District No.

9.” Nowhere in the title did it state that the election was for a millage increase; only for an annual election (implying an election for a school board member). Only much later in the body of the notice was the desired millage increase explained. Was that, therefore, a true Legal Notice?

Finally, I asked Mr. Cook about the line in the ballot that states, “The surplus revenues produced each year by the debt service millage may be used by the district for other school purposes.” I discovered that 1 mill equals $470,000/ year. The new 16.7 mills will generate

$7,850,000/year or approximately $235 million over 30 years. The bond principal is $73 million plus interest payments over 30 years, leaving well over $100 million extra “for other school purposes.” In essence, for whatever they need and want.

So, as Paul Harvey used to say, “Now you know the rest of the story.” Jack Sternberg, MD Hot Springs