Letters to the Editor, Feb. 17

Appreciation of council updates

To the editor,

I wish to thank Councilwoman April Sither for her contribution in the Council Corner February 1o edition of the Scarborough Leader. She educated the public about the council’s six committees: their missions, council membership, chairpersons, and days and times of meetings. She also informed the public that these meeting are open to all residents unless otherwise notified.

All of this information is so vital to Scarborough residents.

Thank you, April, and thank you, Scarborough Leader for including the Council Corner in your editions. I believe it is vitally important for residents to be informed about how our governance functions. I look forward to more education about the process for changing the Town Ordinance, and Growth Management Ordinance; the process for Planning Board approval of projects; the process for creating the budget etc.etc.

Perhaps the above will be subjects for future Council Corner articles. Thank you again for bringing our Council and residents closer together through education and communication.

Nina T McKee
Scarborough

New consolidated school means tax increase of 12%+

To the editor,

As many of you may recall, last year’s discussion about the $13 million dollar bond for the library expansion lacked one key piece of information that informed taxpayers should ALWAYS have — how much will my taxes increase? At a Town Council mMeeting the town manager and the chairman of the Town Council (at that time) declined to provide the information.

It is widely acknowledged the three elementary schools are inadequate for many reasons and a solution needs to be found. The proposed solution is a new consolidated elementary school with an estimated cost of $135,000,000. This is by no means a hard number, just the school dept. rough estimate; the school has yet to be designed and priced out. They’re planning on a fall vote.

The calculation is based upon data in the tax assessor’s report, 22-23 Tax Commitment Report presented to the Town Council.

The net cost to run the Town in 22-23 – $76,768,000. Add $135,000,000 school bond for 30 years @ 3.60% = $7,367,710/yr in additional taxes to be raised annually for 30 years. This alone increases taxes 9.62%. Add another 3-5% for Scarborough’s “normal” yearly increases, and the tax rate increase will be over 12%! Homes valued at $500,000, taxes increase $935/yr!