Hamilton County Referendum's being passed for School's

Today I received the survey below from the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors (MIBOR) asking what we thought about the following:

On November 6, 2018, voters in Noblesville will be asked to consider a referendum for Noblesville Schools for a proposed annual rate of 37 cents of every $100 of a home or business’s net assessed value. The proposal is being made to fund mental health staff and initiatives, safety staff and equipment (53%) and retaining and recruiting high quality teachers and staff (47%).

We would appreciate your time to answer the brief survey below.

In my opinion, the government and schools are taking the easy way out and aren't working hard enough to keep within their current budgets.  They need to be more financially responsible and stop the wasteful spending on school projects. Stop passing referendum's every time a tragedy or event occurs.  They are using our kids and teachers to get more money from the tax payers.  This is the "easy way out" to say we will increase staff, security, or the number of teachers.  What if they actually stopped spending so much money on the high-end finish level of these schools (ie: carpeting, or gymnasiums, sports facilities, etc). 

I'm all for sports and having nice schools, but there is too much wasteful spending in my opinion at all governmental levels and it has an impact on the local economy when you start charging homeowners extra for taxes.  It's also reduces the amount of rental properties that can be purchased by investors that aren't paying cash.  For example:  Right now my homeowners with mortgages on their primary residence pay approximately 1% before any referendums.  My investors will pay approximately 2% of assessed value per year and commercial investors 3%.

To reduce it down to the ridiculous let's take a $200k rental property.  My homeowners would pay $2,000 and my investors would pay $4,000 per month.  When you divide $4,000 per month that is $333.33 per month that goes straight to taxes.  Add in the insurance costs of $90 per month and typical HOA fee's in many neighborhoods of $50 per month and the investor will need $473 per month just to break even if the home was paid for in cash.  

When the government passes an additional referendum of .37 cents on every $100 that will increase it another $740 per year or $62 per month. That takes the investor costs up to $535 per month.  

If you don't care about the investor, I hope you are a homeowner because if you are a tenant, they are raising your rent by that much just to break even.  When they raise their rent it increases rent for the entire market.  So your $1,500 per month rent now is $1,562 per month.  For many tenants that means an increase in work hours, which then can decrease quality of life and/or possibly increase cost of child care for the worker. 

So next time someone say's, you are being insensitive by not passing this referendum because schools are doing it for the kids or the teachers (who I do believe are underpaid by the way), just respond by saying....."These items need to be done and paid for, but by being more financially responsible at the school and governmental level, not by increasing my property tax dollars that will have a negative impact on everything I do." 

Referendums = higher taxes

Referendums = higher rent

Referendums = negative impact on local economy

Referendums = people go live where it costs less

*This is real news!