Scott Tibbs
Irresponsible use of funds by MCCSC
By Scott Tibbs, September 2, 2022
The Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) printed and distributed a pamphlet in June 2022 urging people to vote "yes" on the property tax referendum this November. They spent about $4,800 to mail it. They are openly spending tax dollars on electioneering for something that will be on the ballot this November.
MCCSC claims to have "no records" regarding the cost of producing and printing the brochure. I do not believe them. However, if this is indeed true, this says some very disturbing things about our local school system. If MCCSC cannot even be trusted to keep track of how much they spent on producing a mailing, why should we trust them with more money via a property tax increase? Keeping track of how tax dollars are spent is a basic function of government that must not be neglected.
What we do know is this looks professionally designed. The pamphlet is on glossy paper in full color, which drives up the cost of printing. The cost of producing it was certainly higher than the cost of mailing it to 60,000 households in Monroe County. MCCSC claims to not have enough money, but they can throw money away on campaigning on a ballot measure for the November election. There are many ways they could have spent that money that directly benefit MCCSC students.
Whatever the final cost, and whether MCCSC is hiding the numbers or so sloppy that they do not have the numbers, tax dollars should not be used for electioneering. State government needs to step in and stop this. If MCCSC employees or the school board want to donate their own private funds to a political action committee - as concerned citizens and parents have in the past to oppose a previous referendum - that would be fine. But this is not fine. State government needs to criminalize the use of public funds for election advocacy.
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