Tax Hike Would Fund Whose Future?

Michigan Capitol Confidential reports that the Lansing School District used taxpayer-funded resources to send out a flier that clearly encourages voters to approve a tax increase to pay for more spending by the district.

Experts quoted in the story explain that while probably improper, the flyer urging voters to "Fund Our Future" was not (quite) illegal. A school district spokesman told MichCapCon.com that the phrase is "just a slogan."

Actually, viewed from the perspective of the public school employees who produced and distributed the flier, it's a precisely accurate description: The proposed tax and spending increase would fund their futures.

Whether the futures of other residents would be "funded" rather than defunded by the tax hike is something for voters to determine. How well they're able to penetrate all the district's taxpayer-funded smoke-and-mirrors to do so accurately is another question.

Cross-posted at TheMichiganView.com.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited.