Madison Messenger - November 24, 2021

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October 24, 2021 - MADISON MESSENGER - Page 5
Income tax renewal would stabilize school finances
On Nov. 2, the Madison-Plains Local
School District (MPLSD) is requesting the
community we serve to renew the 1.25 percent
earned-income tax levy, originally
passed by the voters in 2018. The revenue
generated from this existing levy supports
various aspects of the district’s day-to-day
operating expenses, such as fuel, utilities,
salaries, and various other items that help
to promote student learning.
The revenue the earned-income tax generates
provides for approximately 15 percent
of the district’s general fund
expenditures on an annual basis. That is a
significant percentage of our annual budget.
We have worked hard to keep expenses
down and to be good stewards of the resources
the community has given to us.
District funding comes in at various
times throughout the year in varying
amounts; however, expenses tend to remain
constant, resulting in a low point that occurs
every year in January and February.
During my first two years, the district had
to borrow $1 million per year to be able to
get through these low points. As the earnedincome
tax has continued to come in, the
funds have allowed the district to maintain
a more stable general fund balance. As such,
we did not have to borrow money last year,
and we do not anticipate having to borrow
money this year. What that means is the
earned-income tax is working. Thank you
for your support.
The current earned-income tax is set to
expire at the end of calendar year 2023.
Though that seems like it is a long way off,
in terms of school funding, it is not. We are
asking for the community to renew the
earned-income tax now, and for a 10-year
term, so that we can stabilize district finances,
as we have other needs that need to
letter to the editor
also be addressed, such as the renewal of
the permanent improvement levy which is
set to expire at the end of calendar year
2022. Pursuing excellence is important, and
the district also needs to have a conversation
about our facilities, as they are aging
and repairs are becoming more difficult and
costly.
Finally, there seems to be some misunderstanding
about the earned-income tax
and what exactly gets taxed. Only earnedincome,
such as wages, salaries, tips, and
other taxable employee income, is taxed.
What is not taxed under the earned-income
tax is retirement income (i.e., pensions), social
security, unemployment benefits, disability
and survivor benefits, welfare
benefits, child support, interest, dividends,
Oh, the many places you will go when surfing
and capital gains—these items are not taxed.
The district made the decision in 2018 to
pursue the earned-income tax because there
was an awareness that by doing so, it would
neither affect the incomes of senior citizens
on fixed retirement incomes, nor those persons
receiving the above mentioned forms of
income that are also not taxed.
As a district, we want to stabilize district
finances so that we can continue on our path
to achieving excellence in rural education.
The renewal of the earned-income tax helps
us to continue the work toward realizing
this vision for our students and our district.
Please remember to get out and vote on
Nov. 2. Thank you for your support of the
Madison-Plains Local School District.
Chad Eisler, superintendent
Madison-Plains Local Schools
Never in my wildest dreams did I think
I’d be such a good surfer. But here I am,
surfing most every day and thoroughly enjoying
it. Before you start laughing as you
picture this knobby-kneed, old man yelling
woo-hoos as he rides a surfboard atop a
monster wave generated by a fountain in a
local retention pond, let me relieve us all
from that scary image.
Words often take on new meanings. Such
is the case with “surfing.” The closest I’ve
come to water-involved surfing is pulling
out my vinyl Beach Boys album and playing
“Surfer Girl,” “Surfin’ U.S.A” or “Catch a
Wave.” I’m talking about the newer surfing,
a.k.a. snooping. That surfing involves sitting
safely in front of my desk computer,
banging away on the keyboard and snooping
the Internet. It’s physically going nowhere
but mentally going anywhere.
Much of my Internet surfing is repetitive.
Each day, I check the news headlines from
various sources. That lasts until I get too
ticked off or depressed. Then I check the
sports scores and find what pitcher blew it
for the Indians this time, then how the
Browns blew another game. Next, I take a
deep breath, make sure my aspirin and
antacid are nearby, then look at the finance
and stock market numbers. I spend lots of
time surfing the horse racing world, my favorite
hobby. I scan the racing news and
enter picks in free daily handicapping challenge
contests.
Questions come up during the day, and I
find myself surfing to resolve my curiosity.
What’s that movie about? Would I enjoy
that book? What do the reviews say? Where
is that place? How do I get there? How far
away is it? I need to take the dog for a walk,
what’s the weather radar showing? Maybe
I’ll hear a song and I can’t remember who
sang it. No problem, a few keystrokes and
there it is. Oh, if only I had the computer
back in my school days. I might have
learned something.
There’s one surfing I’ve really grown to
appreciate. With all the dog walking I do, I
find my mind wandering as I plod along.
Sometimes I think about the future. More
frequently, I look back in time. My evermounting
question is: What became of the
people I knew that touched my life? Out of
it comes new internet surfing/snooping.
The farther back in time your search
goes, the more difficult surfing becomes because
the computer era hadn’t even begun.
Your findings may be sparse or non-existent.
But more importantly, when you’re in
your seventies, you must prepare yourself
for the harsh reality of life’s circles. When
you start hitting the keyboard looking for
people you knew years ago, odds are you’ll
quite often find nothing more than an obit.
But sometimes a pleasant surprise
awaits. Recent surfing turned up an old
family friend of my parents. Our families
had been quite close. I hadn’t seen him in
over 50 years, so I expected the worst. But
there he was, living in the same home. I saw
his wife had passed on, but he was turning
98. I sent him a letter, attempting to update
the many years, and birthday greetings.
I was surprised when he called me on his
birthday. We talked for some time. We both
chuckled as we recalled our combined family
trip to the North Pole to see Santa. We
kids weren’t dummies. We knew it wasn’t
the North Pole; it was a place called Santa’s
Land in Putney, Vermont. It was one of
Santa’s satellite production facilities, and
luckily Santa had flown in on his sleigh for
guest column
Dave Burton
a meeting. That picture
I still have of us with
Santa and Rudolph?
Well, that wasn’t
Rudolph; they couldn’t
fool me. It was Comet.
The call made it a special
day for both of us. I
promised to call him on
his 100th birthday.
Most of my teachers have passed but
surfing leads to fill-in data I wish I’d known
when they were teaching me. Maybe I would
have shown more respect and attentiveness.
There was my choir teacher: served in the
Navy during the Korean conflict, an accomplished
pianist and composer, active and respected
in theater and musicals on
Broadway. Another keystroke and there was
my gym teacher. He had a doctorate, was a
standout athlete with many awards, played
baseball in the St. Louis Cardinal organization,
and became director of athletics in the
large city school system after I graduated.
I found one of my old high school chums.
We used to travel into the big city to see
Ranger hockey games at the old Madison
Square Garden. He was always in the advanced
high school classes, and I wasn’t surprised
to see he’d become a lawyer in a
prestigious law firm near Times Square in
New York City.
It was fun surfing for information about
my old college buddies. Sadly, but the reality
of life, more than a few have passed
away. I was surprised and disheartened to
see a fraternity brother I’d seen not too
many years ago at a football game up at
Akron, when Syracuse visited and played,
had passed on. I found several articles detailing
how instrumental another fraternity
brother’s efforts have been in successfully
cleaning up the lake that the city of Syracuse
borders, Lake Onondaga. Another very
close classmate who was in ROTC with me
went on to become a major general in the
Air Force with accolades galore. I knew he
was sharp and really wasn’t surprised.
One of my summer jobs in high school
was doing landscaping work at a beautiful
estate. I really liked the owner but barely
got to know him. There was a distinct aura
about him. A few keystrokes and I found he
passed away in 2013 in Austria. He’d graduated
summa cum laude from Princeton
and was a Navy carrier pilot in World War
2. He worked for an investment company in
New York City, then became a key financial
assistant for the president at the White
House. His list of accomplishments and
recognition goes on and on. Only by surfing
years later did I learn all this. I now wish I
could have talked more with him.
So many people pass into and out of our
lives during our lifetime. Some impact us
more than others, some not at all. Sadly, we
too often don’t even realize the extent until
years later. Surfing the web gives us a
chance to go back in time and gain those answers
and a better understanding of our encounters
and how they might have
influenced our lives.
Dave Burton is a guest columnist for the
Columbus Messenger Newspapers. He lives in
Grove City.