BIG RENEGE, Pt. 3: Newspaper "misled" readers on air conditioning, School Board member says

COLUMBIA, 9/5/11  (BeatByte) -- A Columbia Public School (CPS) Board member disputes a Columbia Missourian headline about a recent administration move to use tax dollars instead of bond proceeds for long-overdue air conditioning in eight Columbia schools:

 

School Board bumps tax levy to go toward air conditioning

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/08/25/school-board-approves-levy-adjustment

 

The tax hike violates an oft-repeated earlier promise:  that bond proceeds would pay for air conditioning, without any tax increases.

 

"The Missourian headline is misleading," CPS Board member Tom Rose, D.V.M. told the Heart Beat.  "We would have voted for the 3.2 cent levy increase, I believe, as allowable by law whether we had the air conditioning issues or not.   Other budgetary conditions determined that."

 

Calling the increase a "small change" but "difficult decision given the economic climate," Rose added that with sales tax revenues down and stagnant assessed property values -- indicators of a sagging economy -- "we felt it appropriate" to raise the levy "well within the voter approved amount, to maintain budgeted services."