Uninviting image: Sending the wrong signals

From the BCCT.

Uninviting image: Sending the wrong signals

As a taxpayer advocate, Citizens for Equitable Taxation (CET) is supportive of finding ways to contain or reduce costs. Residential property owners in Morrisville are currently carrying a huge tax burden and relief is a broadly desired goal. Cost control, however, is not all there is to achieving affordable, quality public services, including a solid education for the borough’s children.

The bigger picture includes the generation of tax revenues from sources other than home owners. A healthy balance of these elements creates an economic picture that reflects the overall health of the community. Focusing solely on one element without considering its impact on the others can drastically distort the economic picture and bring about devastating results.

The Morrisville school board has made good on its promise to reduce property taxes — the only local district to do so. Arguments can be made endlessly by both sides as to whether the cuts are appropriate. The perception here, however, is that the school board’s promise to reduce taxes was going to be met regardless of the consequences. Throughout all of this there has been talk of closing schools, combining schools, relieving administrators, eliminating interscholastic sports, and busing students to a distant district — all of this creating great uncertainty and none of it helping to enhance the perception of Morrisville as a good place to live.

Coincidentally, on the revenue side, the borough council amazingly turned down a proposed office building in the business district which would not only have produced significant tax revenues, offsetting those now paid by residents, but would have put about 200 office workers on Bridge Street. All of them would have been potential customers for local businesses and a shot in the arm for meaningful revitalization.

This action was presumably taken to spare a small slice of unused green space between Bridge Street and Williamson Park. Some people were up in arms about this, but bottom line is that this space is not being utilized, nor is it the type of space that would be utilized for recreation. In addition, parking spaces provided by the building could have been utilized for park users during traditional recreational periods.

So now we have a picture of a local school district making drastic cuts and considering radical operating plans to meet campaign promises with apparent disregard for the educational lifestyle of the district’s children. Then we have a borough council sending out clear signals that investors in revitalization are not welcome here. Property owners save a hundred dollars or so in taxes and property values drop by tens of thousands.

Who in their right mind would buy a home or open a business in this political environment? Wake up Morrisville. We need leadership that can see the big picture.

Ted Fletcher, Morrisville Citizens for Equitable Taxation