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Letter: Vote No On Putnam Valley School Referendum

PUTNAM COUNTY, N.Y. -- The Putnam Daily Voice accepts signed and original letters to the editor. To submit your letter, email putnam@dailyvoice.com.

Send your letters to the editor to putnam@dailyvoice.com.

Send your letters to the editor to putnam@dailyvoice.com.

Photo Credit: File photo

To the editor:

The issue at hand is the Putnam Valley Central School system’s referendum vote on Dec. 8 from 3-9 p.m., which will be asking the taxpayers to allow the school to have another reserve account for future capital improvement projects. 

This is to be funded by surplus funds not spent in each year’s 48 million dollar budget, it’s a ploy NOT to reduce our tax burden and NOT use surplus funds to reduce the following year’s budget. 

There is also no independent oversight committee to insure that they will not inflate each year’s budget so that there is a surplus that is put into this Capital Improvement Reserve fund. The lack of transparency on this issue is that the referendum which intends to reserve $10 million is based on a survey by an architect forecasting needed capital improvements over the next five years. 

I was told on Dec. 2, the final draft of the five year Capital Plan will be presented to the Board for adoption on Dec. 17. 

After the Board accepts the report, the timeline for the various capital improvements needed in the District will be discretionary, pending priorities. 

The vote for the referendum is on Dec. 8 and the taxpayers will not know what their money will be spent on until after the referendum is passed. You have to pass it before you know what it will used for! 

I urge the taxpayers of Putnam Valley to come out and vote NO on Dec. 8. Between the refusal to put this out to vote in May with the budget vote, the limited hours the polls will be open (limiting voters) and the undisclosed items our tax dollars will be spent on is another example of the school pushing their agenda to grab as much of our tax dollars as they can. 

The lack of transparency and unsympathetic concern for the resident’s tax dollars is obvious and absolutely Outrageous. 

Dan Vera, Putnam Valley

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