That's a really good way to put the victims in danger
this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
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How does a school property tax increase just happen without it being voted on and passed by the community?
This is a case of FAFO: the school system took on huge liability (in payment of the judgement) and the school system is funded by property taxes.
I get that, but every time the school district in my area wants more money it gets voted on for a property tax increase.
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Also the city was clearly woefully underinsured with only $1m liability coverage. Most cities should have 10-100x that these days
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also just gonna write this one down, but it's only a mild killing
I'm shocked that it wasn't a cop.
They need $7,500 per resident and, according to the article, they intend to raise that money over three years. I don't know what their property values are like but if I assume an average house price of $300k, a current tax rate of 2%, and three people per house then they're currently getting $6,000 in property taxes per person over three years (which they need to spend on other things) and so an enormous tax increase really is necessary.
(I'm neglecting non-residential property tax payers. A tiny town like this probably doesn't have many.)
Your back of the envelope math is good, but small towns usually have very low property values due to not being super desirable places to live (and declining populations) a realistic average would be 100k average home value. Some will be smaller, older houses and only worth around 25-50k, some will be much newer houses built in this century worth closer to 200-300k but most will be older homes that people continue to live in and maintain worth around 100k
And there's not really any guarantee that they're going to stop charging that money after the three years has passed because people will be used to paying it at that point.
That aside, can you imagine having to pay an extra $200 a month for your mortgage for at least three years to cover over the fact that people that work for your city sexually assaulted other people?
I don't know the details of the case but I expect that almost everyone who works for the city is as opposed to sexual assault as any normal person is. The mistake of the city government as a whole was having so little insurance - just one million dollars. I had 500k in liability for my house and I'm only one guy.
At this point I’d move across county lines to somewhere nearby that won’t have double the property tax rate.
You'd have to find someone to buy your house, which will probably be difficult, seeing as there's a massive property tax increase heading that way.
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Some coach diddles kids and the families and kids have to pay for it through insane tax hikes and less school funding? In what world does that make sense?
They already put the coach in prison for 15 years and probation for 25 years after that. Why punish the local community too? Yes, the families should be made whole, but not at the expense of objectively innocent tax payers and schoolchildren.
That's the way the System supposed to work though. The local school district is supposed to be run by those citizens. They elect the school boards that set the policies and appoint the administrators. It's supposed to be representative government. The citizens are supposed to monitor what this board is doing and if they don't like it vote them out. Make their voices heard. Show up at school board meetings. That's their responsibility. If they don't want to do it then they have to live with the consequences.
In a community that's small, there is no way many of these same families and homeowners weren't aware of that predator.
The community enabled him and now the community has to pay for that choice.
What's your alternative solution?
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The school was likely complicit in ignoring warnings. This is why board members should be held personally liable if they are negligent in their duties.
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