WIN TOMORROW

The way Michigan funds school infrastructure upgrades is not changing any time soon, so we cannot pretend that it is. We need to get a millage across the finish line. The board is not the campaign team for a millage, but it is the body that decides what the millage looks like and what it will cost you today and tomorrow. No one can afford more of the same recycled proposals that threaten to sell out future generations for convenience today. We can create an actual solution if we elect a board that will work for it.

Recognize Past Shortcomings

Hunter recognizes that past efforts to secure additional millage funds for district buildings have emphasized short-term impacts rather than long-term consequences. All three rejected bond proposals, if passed, would have strapped the district with considerable long-term debt while providing minimal long-term solutions to the infrastructure challenges that the district faces.

Bond millages are long-term debts paid by taxpayers over 15-20+ years. Long-term debts should only be taken to:

1. Provide a positive fiscal impact to the district’s operational budget (i.e., energy efficiency, student capacity, operational optimization);

2. Solve infrastructure challenges that hinder student performance and/or safety; and/or

3. Prevent repetitive and costly “bandage” maintenance.

Build a Long-Term District Infrastructure Plan

As one of his first and primary priorities, Hunter will emphasize the need to create a District Infrastructure Plan. This flexible and amendable plan will look into the next 50+ years of this district and analyze long-term trends, capital lifespans, and district needs.

When you begin to think long-term, you can focus on solving issues by foreseeing multiple bond cycles through a lens of fiscal responsibility, rather than patching over them with compounded debt. Simultaneously, frivolous waste from repetitive bandage maintenance is erased.

In 2008, voters approved one of these bandage projects… and it did not provide a transformational impact. Why would the district go forward with spending $100 million to do the same thing to functionally obsolete buildings with a practical lifespan shorter than the life of the bonds? We need to open our minds to every potential path and pick one that creates the long-term impact we desire.

Let’s Actually Solve Something

The district does unquestionably face infrastructure challenges. Let’s find the path and solve them in a strategic and optimized way.

Hunter does not want the district to come to taxpayers every decade asking for more money to fix up the same buildings. That is inefficient and costly — at the low end, by rolling over bandage debt, the status quo could cost taxpayers over $200 million more in the next fifty years.

We need to optimize and replace obsolete buildings, emphasize student security, and provide a learning environment that works for everyone. It might cost a little more right now, but it will provide long-term relief to taxpayers in the decades to come. That is the kind of change that promotes growth and investment in Saginaw Township.