Taxation Without Representation…

During today’s school board retreat, LightHouse, a company that was paid to do surveys for the school district in the wake of their bond defeat, noted that one of the survey participants said that the district needed to reach out to second home owners more. The majority of the people at the retreat were representatives of the school… Administrators Principals, School Board members, and others gathered to better understand why last November’s school bond failed.

AND THEY LAUGHED AT THE COMMENT.

“Doesn’t that person know that second home owners don’t vote!” came the mocking cry from the attendees… as if they were deriding Forest Gump who had just uttered “Sometimes life is like a box of chocolates.” The tone was 100% “What an idiot.”

The main problem with mocking second home owners is that they pay our bills. Second home owners don’t get a discount on their property taxes like you and I do. They pay the full amount, and there are many of them funding our lifestyle.

So, although they don’t get to vote (since this isn’t their primary residence), they do deserve a say. We shouldn’t ignore those people that bankroll our schools. They may have different goals, methods, or ideas but they have a legitimate interest in our community, even if they can’t vote.

It’s unfortunate that they are laughed off. If their opinions, and therefore tax dollars, don’t matter we should just find a way to remove those taxes from our base. If their opinions don’t matter, let’s give away their tax dollars and make do with what we get from locals. That probably means a significant cut to every government employee’s salary but I guess second home owners don’t really matter.

Or do they?

I think they do.

We take their money and therefore we should take their thoughts and ideas.

Just because you can’t vote doesn’t mean your ideas are worthless…especially when you are paying more than your fair share.