Candor will join S-VE’s debt hole

Dear Editor,

Only 29 percent of the voters in Candor supported the merger with Spencer – Van Etten. One driving reason was that S-VE is deep in debt and the Candor voters did not want to bail out S-VE for it’s wasteful spending. The people who were pushing for the merger are now busily removing that obstacle before the next merger attempt.  By putting the district millions in debt through a building project, Candor would join S-VE in the same debt hole.

In 2000, S-VE voted on a similar building project and it would be useful to remind the Candor voters on how the S-VE voters were misled to pass the project.

The actual cost that the taxpayers are still paying on is about double the cost that was put on the ballot. The reason is that the interest on the loans was added on later, after the vote.

The student population was and is declining, a fact that was concealed from the voters.

The state aid is not guaranteed. When I was on the S-VE School Board, we had an occasion where the state reneged on building aid. The local taxpayers were stuck paying for it.

The year that the building costs kicked in, we had a 29.9 percent increase in taxes. That was after a contingency budget had eliminated sports. The taxes never went back down. We are still paying for the mistakes.

Sincerely

Rainer Langstedt

Spencer, N.Y.