By Joshua Cole
Supporting education is an investment in the future. Usually that statement is abstract and altruistic, but supporters of Littleton Public Schools’ proposed mill levy increase are focusing on more tangible impacts – sustained and improved property values, and a highly qualified and richer workforce of taxpayers.
Voters in Littleton and western Centennial will decide in this fall’s election about giving LPS $12 million per year, which would be about $6 per month or $72 per year in taxes per $100,000 of assessed property value.
“It’s a calling card for us to have a top school district. Schools make good neighborhoods. But the last couple of years we’ve had a difficult time,” said LPS Superintendent Scott Murphy.
District officials talked with residents at the Littleton PUB on Aug. 19, a monthly discussion of issues concerning Littleton.
“It’s not like you have a crappy school district that’s asking for more money. You have an outstanding school district that on almost any measurement is outstanding,” said Littleton Mayor Doug Clark. “What it comes down to are the priorities that the school board has appropriate. If you think band and sports and IB at Littleton High School are wise expenditures (support the mill levy). If you substantially disagree with the priorities (vote against it).”
The board for the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce, which usually doesn’t intervene in municipal and institutional elections, voted overwhelmingly, 20-2, to support the upcoming mill levy proposal.
The South Metro Chamber supported the 2008 Cherry Creek Schools bond program, as well.
“There is no doubt all of us have family members and neighbors in pain in this economic time. There’s no doubt a tax increase is a big deal, and this is a substantive tax increase,” said South Metro Chamber CEO John Brackney. “The reason the chamber supports it is the certainty of business planning. We’ll take these higher taxes. But we’ll trade a little bit of that for a highly qualified, competent work force.
“I’m doing this personally because of my property values. I’m doing this professionally because of my values.”
Unlike bond programs, which end after paying for buildings, mill levy increases are annual and don’t end naturally. The South Suburban Parks and Recreation District mill levy had a 10-year sunset built in, but the LPS mill levy increase doesn’t.
“I think the issue that bothers me most is that it’s a permanent increase on school taxes for what appears to be a temporary crisis,” said Frank Atwood, of Littleton. “There are four elephants in the room. One is state funding and the other three are funding initiatives (Amendment) 60, (Amendment) 61 and (Proposition) 101. Until those get decided, no one is really certain what’s going to happen to the funding. At one, two or three years, I would vote for it, but permanent I’m not voting for it.”
Atwood has two children in an LPS high school. He supports his children in the band, and he volunteers with a middle school chess club. However, Atwood, Littleton’s most active and outspoken Libertarian, said he accepts the need for some government but worries about it getting to big.
“I feel they’ve been spending money well and have been providing an excellent school system. It’s not broke,” Atwood said. “I’m not going to fight it hard. We come back to the age-old question, what is the optimum size of government, and what is the optimum size of money to spend on government schools? I suspect this will pass and we will be nibbled to death by ducks.”
Gloria Leeper had five children and two grandchildren graduate from Littleton schools.
“There are a lot of people my age and older and younger who really hate to see more taxes or the mill levy raised. But when you think back to why you’re here, it was because of the Littleton Public Schools,” Leeper said. “It is a pleasure to pay whatever we need to keep those schools for our kids today just like people who were paying the mill levies and property tax when my kids were going to school.”
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josh@villagerpublishing.com, 303-773-8313 ext. 301
