Dear Editor: When Lake Tahoe Unified School District’s (LTUSD) Measures C and G passed in 1999 and 2008, within three years after each passage we saw a decline in LTUSD enrollment of 541 and 304 students. All in all, the enrollment declined 1,924 students from 2000 to 2011 moving mostly to the Carson Valley/Reno area simply because it became too expensive to live.
The costs of the parcel taxes were passed on to renters and property owners.
As a union rep/negotiator for the classified department we saw benefited bus routes cut, and other bus routes cut to below benefitted status as well as cafeteria workers. Teachers saw classroom size reduction go away in some grades and COLA and salary renegotiations took place. Teachers and classified staff saw some of their friends and coworkers being reduced to substitutes.
Business owners who leased also raised their costs passing that on to the consumer.
For those of you who rent apartments and houses, your rents will go up, and with STPUD’S proposed yearly increases every year for the next five years, you’ll be paying a significant increase in rent.
And with $200 million still owed on measures C and G, add the $250 million payback on Measure U, do you really want your friends, your neighbors, and this community to have to pay a half-billion-dollar debt?
There will be a massive decline in school enrollment. There will be budget cuts in the district payroll. And the cost of everything including food will increase.
David Brown
South Lake Tahoe