by Tom Allen
I’d like to take a few minutes of your time to share my perspective on the school levy that will be on the May ballot.
I’m a 60-year-old, 30-year Loveland area resident with a home in the Loveland school district. I’m semi-retired and our children, who attended Loveland schools from K-12, are grown. Being semi-retired means, like many of you, I watch my spending closely. As someone who has always been proud of the Loveland Schools’ reputation and performance, the divide in our community from the past few levies has been disheartening. I have friends and neighbors on both sides of this issue. I have voted no in the past and I understand why people feel as they do about the situation.
The perspective I want to share is fairly simple, and one that as fellow property owners I hope you will consider. I firmly believe it’s in all of our best interests to be more aligned this May.
The premise is this: I understand that property values are subject to a variety of factors. I believe that school district performance is among the leading considerations of families looking to move to a new community. The way l see it a school district that does not support reasonable funding requests is destined for declining property values over time, as school performance and reputation declines. The reality is that things do cost more over time and it does cost to attract and retain top talent.
Let’s say for the sake of argument that property values drop 10 percent over the next ten years. If your Loveland home was valued at the current Zillow average of $355,000, you will take a $35,500 hit when you sell it. That is a very significant loss. I would prefer to pay a few hundred dollars more each year to help maintain the good reputation of our schools, protect our property values and provide our students with a well-rounded educational experience.
While each of us has reasons that affect our decisions about these levies, I believe what we have in common is that we all prosper when we have a high performing school district. I would like our state to provide a better funding mechanism for our public schools, but unfortunately, it doesn’t. I trust that our current school leaders are good stewards of our hard earned tax dollars and I believe that they reacted appropriately to our feedback when the District overreached.
After voting against the oversized levy a few years ago, I will be voting yes on the May levy that will be on the ballot, mostly to help protect our property values. I’m willing to find the additional hundreds of dollars per year as an investment in education, our community and in all of our property values.
I appreciate you giving this issue further consideration and I respect that each of you has the right to vote for what you believe is best for your situation.
