To the editor:
We have dealt with the snake oil salesman before, let me jog your memory it was over the recreational center, now granted the build and use might be different but the verbal fleecing of the taxpayer is identical. Here is something to think about as these snake oil salesmen are making their pitch to you. We heard the same lines back when the discussion was over the rec center.
1. “This will not cost the taxpayer one dime.” Reality was it did cost the taxpayers to the tune of .76 of mill that the council voted to withhold giving back to the taxpayers and instead used it to pay off the debt service on the rec center, so in fact the citizens were outright lied to.
2. “We need this rec center to grow as a community” and retain good doctors, attract new citizens blah, blah, blah. Well reality was that we did not grow as a community, nor did we retain doctors, or attract new citizens, we surely have not seen an increase in home sales because of it, our roads are the same width and number of lanes, so the philosophy of “build it and they will come” is just a snake oil salesman’s pitch. Look back in the past to the councilors/ citizens who were in favor of every spending bill that came up, where are they now, well some have moved away, some have sold their new homes in Caribou because of the tax revaluation and its cost to them and have moved up to the lakes or to other local communities with lower tax cost and left the rest of us to foot the bill for their blind spending habits.
3. So here we are yet again with another or perhaps the same small group of snake oil salesmen spewing out the same old tired slop about needing this new school to grow as a community and all the cost saving that they are “predicting.” My question to them is where were you through the past years when instead of handing out raises or increasing benefit packages they should have been updating roofs, windows, siding, insulation, doors. These things are addressed first before raises and benefits can be assessed because we supply the facilities for the employees to perform their jobs in and they must be up to snuff first. The school buildings in my mind’s eye have been given just the bare minimum of attention. Is it a surprise to anyone that all of a sudden our school buildings are no good and we’re going to save so much money on a new school building? This sounds suspiciously the same as the snake oil salesman pitch about the rec center.
4) In the real world of business we have a board of directors (taxpayers) who make major decisions. The ones that had the idea of a new building would have approached the board (taxpayers) to first see if they even wanted to build it before moving forward on funding an analysis etc. Not jump out ahead and ask where they would like it to go through a straw poll and using the same old carrot on a stick trick, nothing is free!
5) Now let’s talk about the $22 per $100,000 in valuation, which on its own is nothing to some of us, but what about the fixed income folks? That may have been the difference of getting or not getting medication, insurance, food etc. What about the large businesses or farmers with huge valuations, it will be significantly more than $22 and put a larger burden on them. If, and that’s a “mighty big if,” this rate can be held over the next 90 years or so, you can bet one thing that your municipal mill rate will surely be going up around it and if you doubt this then look back at the mill rate before the 100 percent revaluation, and look at it after the revaluation this should tell you all you need to know. A perfect example of this “snake oil salesman pitch” is the pellet boilers that the city jumped all over for the municipal buildings and fell for this pitch hook line and sinker, well now that didn’t work out so good for the Caribou taxpayers now did it?
6) So in summation I ask the Caribou taxpayers to do your own research, understand how this will affect current and future cost to a city with 200-300 homes for sale, and a population that is dwindling, school enrollment dropping, taxes increasing etc. I am writing this to encourage people to do your homework and educate yourself about the past recreation build and the new proposed school build and remember that when the snake oil salesman’s horse drawn wagon hits the dusty trail and is long gone, there will remain a huge bill for us and future generations (if they stay here) to pay for.
