Tax Plans Justified?

This is the last of a series of articles explaining the bonding and millage questions that will confront voters in the June 8 school election. D..ing the 1969-70 school year, a tax of 35.97 milis for operations and debt service was levied on Ann Arbor School District voters. That figure will rise to 44.77 milis - or $44.77 per $1,000 of state equalized valuation - if the five-part bonding issue plus the two millage propositions which will be on Monday's ballot are approved. One of the millage issues, a one-mill proposition for a county-wide vocational edücation facility, is sponsored by the Washtenaw Intermedíate School District. The other issues have been put on the ballot by the Ann Arbor School District. Is this tax increase needed? School officials - along with many Ann Arborites - say yes. Others, including several candidates for the Board of Education, are firmly opposed to all or part of it. Candidates A. Gerald Gottleib, Robert Barry, and Dallas Hodgins are in favor of some parts of the bonding issue. But they oppose the 3.10-mill operational increase. Robert Conn and Roy Couch are against both the millage and bonding propositions. Gottleib, for example, argües that this school district "must have some fiscal 4y." The expected $65 million increase in tax base next year, he says, is more than enough to cover the costs of 864 expected new pupils. He also contends that class sizes couldbe increased to the maximum allowed in the master contract with the Ann Arbor teachers as a way of obtaining more funds. Barry says the 12.6 per cent expected increase in the tax base (from $516,419,302 in 196970 to an estimated $581,775,815 in 1970-71) "should be sufficient to cover the four per cent increase in enrollment" next year (from 20,107 to 20,971) without an increase in operational millage. Conn argües that the 1970 census report and tax equalization should "produce ampie operational funds," Couch j advocates a return to "teaching basics" to save money. Hodgins says it is "simplistic to support all bonding and millage issues," and he says he is "gravely concerned" about the fiscal responsibility of this school district. "Borrowing $36 million (the cost of the fivepart bonding issue) at 8 per cent and adding this to what we owe, we shall be indebted over $100 million paying $3.7 million in interest at a time of depression, inflation, high interest and general u n r e s t , ' ' Hodgins states. "This isn't sensible - nor are all the supporting arguments." (George Balas, business manager for the public schools, says the schools will owe about $73 million, not $100 million, if_ all five parts of Monday's bonding issue are approved.) Other school board candidates, such as incumbent Charles H. Good and Paul D. Carrington and Norman R. Keefer, support both the millage and bonding issues. "I support all the millage and bonding proposals as investments in the prevention of future expansión of today's school disruptions," Good has stated. "Without a millage increase, cost-of-living pay increases for teachers will come at the expense of existing pi-ograms," Carrington says. Keefer believes "all are needed due to population growth, inflation and much needed basic program improvement." Nearly all of the 11 candidates, with the exception of Conn and Couch, support all or part of the bonding issues. Most also . support the vocational education millage proposal. School Supt. W. Scott ■ man Jr. says he is optimistic about Monday's election, as a I result of his contacts with I munity groups, though he concedes it's "very hard to get your fingers on the pulse of the community." Westerman says he thinks all I proposals on the ballot Monday I wiU succeed or all will fail. He I contends each part is "equally I n e e d e d ' ' , and he s a y s he I doesn't agree with some critics I that the bonding issue is too I large, encompassing necessities I plus "niceties." I "Some people are assessing I niceties as those buildings I which badly need renovation," Westerman says, such as I sun Junior High, built in 1937. 'Too many districts have had (iroblems by waiting too long to update their old buildings." Westerman has termed the building needs of Ann Arbor ■'urgent and unavoidable," and he points to the already crowded conditions at many schools -- resulting in portable classrooms. One of the schools on the ballot, Dixboro Elementary, has more portables than regular classrooms. Even if Proposal III, the senior high portion, is passed Monday, Westerman has said split shifts will probably be needed in the 1973-74 school year at both Pioneer and Huron Highs because of overcrowding. The third high school, if approved Monday, is expected to be opened by the fall of 1974. The superintendent said he hopes for major reform in the fax structure soon which would take the burden for operating schools off the property owner, and he speculates such reform rright have gone through this jear if it were not an election year. But Westerman hopes that property owners will vote 'yes" Monday, and work for statewide reform. He repeats a figure quoted earlier this year that just 3 per cent of the average Ann Arbor family's income (514,494 in 1969-70) goes for school taxes.