Truth
Local school officials have some valid concerns about how they're supposed to pay for building maintenance under the state's new property tax structure.
Caps on the amount of property taxes residents and businesses have to pay mean less revenue for schools and other local governments. For schools, that means less money in property tax-supported funds, which include debt service, transportation and capital projects.
Since loans have to be paid out of the debt service fund and those costs are fixed, any cuts that have to be made will come out of the other funds. The capital projects fund pays for building and grounds maintenance and can also finance utilities, office equipment and other technology.
While Goshen Community Schools has yet to put off a maintenance project, according to Superintendent Bruce Stahly, he's concerned that could be in the corporation's future.
Elkhart is a different story. Doug Hasler, executive director of support services, said ECS held off replacing boilers at North Side Middle School and a roof at Memorial High School. It looks like the school system could put off replacing the roof at Cleveland and Hawthorne elementary schools, as well.
No one wants to put students at risk, so officials will move ahead if it comes down to student safety. But up until the change in the property tax structure, schools were generally working on a three- to five-year maintenance plan. That's an appropriate way to operate. It's not an attempt to bilk the taxpayers; instead, it's a protection of valuable capital investments.
Because schools will not be able to afford timely maintenance, they'll actually be forced into a situation where it will probably cost more in the long term to fix whatever is broken because they've had to wait.
Meanwhile, schools also have delayed replacing office machines and other routine items because this year's budget has yet to be approved by the state -- even though it's mid-August and the start of another school year.
Local governments are in the same dilemma. It's simply unacceptable. And while there's enough blame to go around, clearly the county and the state need to figure out how to get all the proper paperwork done in a timely manner so budgets can be approved on time.
It's difficult to look ahead to 2010 if you don't know what you're working with for 2009.
The Legislature needs to take an honest look at the impact of changes to the property tax structure on schools and local governments when it returns in January.