Letters to the Editor

Letter to the editor: PenMet levy request by the numbers

PenMet’s advocacy for approving this November’s levy lid lift is supported mainly by the following two points:

• Describing how the tax rate has dropped since the last levy lid lift
• Informing us that we need to approve this levy lid lift to maintain and expand the level of service provided to the residents of the park district by raising the levies an additional $17.7 million over the next six years.

I’d like to address each of the bullet points.  Here are some hard facts:

• In 2017, the year before the current levy lid lift went into effect, PenMet received $4.7 million in property tax levy income.
• In 2018, the first year the current levy lid lift went into effect, PenMet received $6.3 million in property tax levy income.
• Accordingly, the increase in property tax levies that we all paid from 2017 to 2018, just in that one year was 34%
• In the 2018-2023 time period, which coincides with the effective dates of the current levy lid lift, PenMet received just over $40 million in property tax levies versus $29 million.
• Accordingly, the increase in our property tax levies that we all paid from 2017 to 2023 was more than 70% more than we would have paid without the levy lid lift.

Why is PenMet not mentioning these tremendous increases in the levies we’ve all paid?  The answer is either they don’t feel the numbers are important or they don’t feel the numbers help their case.  Either way, these numbers are something voters need to know.

Now, let’s look at what the proposed levy lid lift will do:

• In 2024, the first year of the current levy lid lift if approved, our property tax levies will increase by more than 29% — just in that one year.
• From 2024 to 2029, the time period of the current levy lid lift if approved, it is entirely possible that our property tax levies will increase, not by $17.7 million as PenMet keeps saying, but by more than $24 million.

PenMet is disguising the 29% increase by saying it’s only $10/mo for the average homeowner.  Why don’t they share the overall percentage increase?  It’s easy to calculate:  To go from a rate of $.58 to a rate of $.75 is a $.17 increase and $.17 is 29.3% of $.58.  Why does PenMet to refuse to talk real numbers?

Craig McLaughlin

Fox Island

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