There's no reason to vote against it.
We're talking about the Dec. 14 referendum that will allow the Niagara Falls School District to float a $50 million bond issue that will fund the construction of a new Niagara Street School and result in significant capital improvements on the city's other 13 schools.
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To begin with, the undertaking won't raise anyone's taxes. While the city and the county have both cried poor and demanded tax hikes while cutting services, school district officials are gifting residents with a series of major construction projects, to take place over the next decade, that won't cost anybody anything.
Schools Superintendent Carmen Granto assured us that the district will not have to solicit any additional funding over the next 10 years to pay for further work on the buildings. We believe him.
The children of Niagara Falls will benefit from the project for a generation to come. Local workers from the building and associated trades will be guaranteed employment, and families -- the backbone of any community -- will have still more reason to stay here in the Falls.
The state will subsidize most of the project's cost. While we've heard the tired old argument that state money is still tax money, its wooden-headed proponents don't seem to realize that, if Niagara Falls doesn't take it, the funding will be directed to Utica, Rome, Corning, Jamestown, Troy or any one of dozens of other school districts around New York State.
Our kids deserve the best we can give them. To their credit, the administration of the Niagara Falls School District realizes this. They should be congratulated for being able to put such an ambitious deal together in such a way that it doesn't cost anything locally.
In fact, it's only because of a quirky state law that a referendum for a capital improvement project that won't raise taxes needs to be held in the first place.
The likelihood is that not a lot of people will turn out next Tuesday to vote on this important issue. Which makes your "yes" vote all the more important. Think of it as a Christmas present.
It's an investment in our future, and one that won't take any money out of our pockets.
What's not to like?
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Dec. 7 2004 |