MISHAWAKA — All of the city’s elected officials have poured their support behind two referendums that would boost property taxes but give School City of Mishawaka the $25.6 million that the district has been desperate to find.
The Mishawaka Common Council unanimously passed a resolution Monday that voices their support — along with that of Mayor Dave Wood and City Clerk Debbie Ladyga-Block — for the referendums.
Each of them spoke. It was far different from 2013, when none of them took a stance on School City’s last referendum for $28 million, which ultimately failed to win enough votes in that year’s elections.
What flipped it around this time, they said, is how School City came to the community to seek its support and ideas first.
“We just weren’t sure,” council member Dale “Woody” Emmons, D-1st, recalled of the first referendum. “It was just a figure out there —$28 million that we needed for the schools.”
It was “just a few people” saying the money was needed, said Emmons, who’s been in community meetings since early on and is now co-chairman of the political action committee, Our Children Your Future, that’s backing the referendums.
This year is “totally different,” he said, arguing that the needs are more detailed and proven.