The Ridgefield School Board is proposing another school bond just months after the last one failed. This $40 million dollar bond is coming on the heels of a pandemic, an economic meltdown and a quarantine with millions of Americans losing their jobs and incomes as they watch their savings dwindle away.
Many parents have learned to home school their children and are loath to put them back into school until the risk of COVID-19 is gone. Property taxes have already been escalating with aggressive appraisals by County tax collectors who are looking to fill the revenue gaps their counties are experiencing from loss of income tax and sales tax revenues.
Approval of this bond will put another nail in the economic coffin of many Ridgefield residents, some of whom are on fixed incomes and barely holding onto their homes as it is. This bond will not only affect homeowners, it will also affect residents who are renting or leasing their domiciles.
Property tax increases placed upon landlords are swiftly transferred to the renters and leasers through rent increases. There are times when the economy is strong when school boards can push through enormous school bonds. There are times when exigent circumstances find the economy in depression and it is wise to defer. There is no room for tone deafness in this economy. This is a time to be wise.
