Letter to the Editor 

To the editor:

Here we go again, another “no-tax-rate-increase” bond proposal.

Please, voters, don’t fall for this misleading advertising.

Just because our tax rate won’t increase doesn’t mean we aren’t going to pay for it. We are going to pay for it for a very long time.

Lindbergh Schools currently owes $123 million of long term debt and interest that we, the taxpayers, have to pay back over many years. The last of these bond issues won’t be paid back until 2034. Current year spending for debt service principal and interest is already a staggering $9.3 million.

Since the proposal is a “no-tax-rate-increase,” they won’t be able to increase annual debt reduction payments much. Therefore, the only way Lindbergh can pay for it is to push the payments way out into the future, well past the 2034 date, incurring additional interest payments.

Approximately 20 percent of the total revenue Lindbergh receives from our real-estate and personal property taxes goes to its debt service fund, which is used to pay the principal and interest on already approved bond issues.

I currently pay over $400 annually to the debt service fund on my taxes and will probably not live long enough to see this ever go down or reduced.

Check out your 2018 tax statements for the entry “SCH-LINDBERGH” and calculate 20 percent of it.

How much do you already pay?

For how many decades do you want to continue to pay?

Mark Flanagan
Crestwood