By DAVE HAMRICK
Editor-at-large

If you go by the letters and e-mails we've been getting at The Citizen, the Board of Education is in serious danger of losing its bid for a special sales tax to pay for school construction next week.

The objections are many and varied.

Some object because they don't trust the school board. That's partly because there has been a series of actions by the board that were unpopular but necessary.

For instance, recent school construction has brought the inevitable redrawing of school districts, an exercise that is guaranteed to tick off the parents of every child who has to change schools, and many of the parents of children who don't have to change schools.

It's also partly because of some actions by the board that looked suspicious to people, and which can't be absolutely defended as necessary. For instance, they named a superintendent who was, from the get-go, a short-timer. He came to Fayette County to retire.

Yet he made a lot of fairly severe changes in personnel, and people suspected that some cronyism was going on. A lot of people are thoroughly convinced of that.

Personally, I couldn't tell you whether they're justified in that belief, but there it is. Two school board members paid for that perception in the last election.

Now the board has promoted a respected administrator from within to be its superintendent instead of going outside, and seems to be trying to erase the negative impressions that built up from previous actions, but I suspect there's still an image problem out there that is going to affect the vote this coming Tuesday.

Some object because they believe the board has not managed their tax money wisely in the past. Schools should have been built larger to accommodate expected growth, instead of having to come back to the well for more tax money time after time, some would argue.

The portable classrooms show up way too soon after a school first opens, the argument goes. “If you can't manage our money and our classroom needs better than that, why should we give you more money to mismanage?”

Again, I lack sufficient information to judge whether it's true. I'm reporting what I've been hearing.

If those kinds of mistakes have, indeed, been made in the past, I'm not sure that voting against the tax is going to solve the problem. Assuming we've learned from those mistakes, we'll never catch up if we have to rely only on property tax — yesterday's dollars — to keep up with the projected growth — tomorrow's dollars.

Frankly, I think the bottom line for the majority of those who object may be the feeling that any tax is a bad tax.

For those of you on the left who think of me as a right wing radical, let me just say this: There are such things as good taxes.

What you folks have to decide as you go to the polls Tuesday is whether this is going to be a good tax.

How do you define a good tax?

A. It's necessary. If you don't think the school system can keep up with the growth in students (not to mention the increasing demand for new technology and improved security) using property taxes and state funding alone, then you should vote for the sales tax.

I think there's compelling evidence that this may be the case. Fayette County is growing at a rate that requires about a new school every year, and the students from new neighborhoods show up at school long before any property taxes start coming in. There's also a huge time lag before any state funding for new construction comes in.

If you don't want to be constantly behind the curve, tomorrow's dollars have to come from somewhere.

B. It's better than the alternative. Your choice is between sales taxes and more property taxes. I haven't heard anyone from the school board predicting a reduction in property taxes as a result of passage of the sales tax, but it's certainly possible that the property tax for bonded indebtedness could be increased if the sales tax doesn't go through.

Sources at the school board say it would take three mills of property tax to pay back a $90 million bond for construction.

C. It's buying things that are needed and will enhance the county's quality of life.

It's easy to make a case for the new classrooms, but this tax also will pay for improved technology and security. Some people may think the schools don't need all those bells and whistles.

Can Fayette continue to have the best schools in the state without these advancements? And is it worth it to you to continue to have the best schools in the state?

Empty-nesters may answer that last question differently than those with children. Personally, quality education is one of those things I feel I have to support as a human being and a member of society, regardless of where I am in the stages of life.

Whether that's ever going to come from a public education system is another question entirely, but as long as we have one, it should be the best that we can make it.

In the end, it's a tough choice, but you have to make it, Fayette voters. Good luck.

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