Mancos has the same problem as Cortez voters on the upcoming school ballot – nebulous wording. Mancos RE-6 School District debt is to be increased by a repayment cost of up to $8.5 million for capital improvements to various schools within the district.
While I am not against capital improvements for the safety, health and well-being of the students, I am against how those capital improvements are to be implemented. The language on the ballot states that, “ad valorem property taxes be levied without limit as to the mill rate to generate an amount sufficient in each year, to pay the principal of, premium if any, and interest on such debt to fund any reserves for the payment thereof, which taxes shall be in addition to any property taxes that otherwise could be levied by the district?”
What does that mean? There is no indication here of a sunset provision for these additional taxes. So we will have to pay these taxes for as long “as the Board of Education may determine?” There is no indication of how these capital improvements will be bid – will this work be competitively bid at a fixed price? Or will these contracts be time and materials – meaning that “the job costs what it costs?” Where is the fiscal responsibility in that?
I think it is also interesting to note that there is no information on the two candidates listed on the ballot for the Board of Directors Mancos (education?). What do they stand for?
Victor Loun
Mancos
