The bottom line: response to Jack Fisher's ‘My Turn'

Jack, you called for an honest debate and discussion on the complex issues facing the taxpayers of the DV school district. The fact remains that your way of doing business has cost taxpayers a 20% increase in their taxes over the four years that you were the DV financial director. Since Taxpayers United members have been on the board we have been able to accomplish the following. 1 - A zero tax increase in the school year 2007 and 2008 and as a result taxpayers were able to receive a reduction in their taxes of $376 from The Homestead Act. 2 - We did resolve the issue of providing clean water for our children at the Dingmans campus. without raising taxes. In the four years that you were financial director you were not able to resolve the issue of the water even though you continued to raise taxes. You did nothing to discourage the board on using capital improvement money for grass carpet instead of clean water for our children. Voting no was not strong enough. 3 - While you talked about the safety of our children you did nothing about it except raise our taxes .We on the other hand have provided our children and teachers with armed police in our schools to protect them against an armed intruder; without raising taxes. 4 - We are revamping our curriculum from K to 12 .in an effort to increase our SAT scores which in turn will result in higher scholarship dollars and entrance into better colleges; without raising taxes. 5- We added 4-advanced placement courses and 45 Co-Curricular activities [after school programs]; without raising taxes. When I asked our superintendent at an open school board meeting to respond to a rumor that D.V. was on the verge of bankruptcy and that we have depleted our reserve fund. Dr.Finan said that “D.V. is the poster child for the rest of the state in fiscal responsibility.” Last week you wrote in another paper that your goal was for full transparency. In this paper you want to lay claim to being fiscally responsible, and caring about our children. Here is the irony, according to public records while you were raising our taxes, you were delinquent on your own taxes and continue to be. The tax dollars that you neglect to pay hurt our children. As the former Chair of Budget and Finance and a CPA you know this to be true far better than anyone else. Obviously the less money the district has, the more difficult it is to improve the quality of our children’s education and places that responsibility on the people who do pay their taxes. Not to mention the burden it puts on Seniors Citizens on fix incomes. The bottom line is, while you are writing and talking a lot of trash, Taxpayer United is saving taxpayers cash, and getting the job done! Robert Goldsack, president Delaware Valley School Board of Directors