Dear editor,
I was planning to write a story of a knight in shining armor riding in to save the kingdom, and of a damsel with tears of joy at the kingdom's salvation from collapse.
However, as I'm learning in economics, there are opportunity costs and, lately, mine seem to be in the realm of time so I'll jump right to the point.
There is an initiative — origination unknown — to push for a half-cent sales tax increase for the Okaloosa County School District, with hopes to place it on the March 2017 municipal elections ballot.
By the way, that election averages 14 to 25 percent voter participation, and probably less next year after the General Election this fall.
At the Oct. 24 School Board meeting, Ted Corcoran, president of the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce, asked the board what the needs of the district were and, once given that info, he would present them with some options on how best to achieve the goal.
Superintendent Mary Beth Jackson had already tasked the schools to compile lists of their needs. The state Department of Education requires a similar list of prioritized projects to be compiled and sent annually.
Christmas is coming, so it probably doesn't hurt to check the list twice. Of course, the economics professors would probably view such repetitive tasks as an unnecessary expenditure of valuable resources.
It may well be that the current revenue stream of $371 million in the annual budget is not enough to get the job of educating our children done effectively. I don't think the chamber of commerce needs to determine whether or not we need a tax increase; we voted five board members into office to do that. I expect they will do their due diligence and evaluate the budget and see if money is being wisely spent.
If we need more money to fix the mentioned leaky roofs and any capital outlay projects, so be it, but they need to make sure current funds are properly spent, the five-year plan is appropriated for in a fiscally responsible manner and the sun will continue to shine on Camelot.
WENDELL BEATTIE
Crestview
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Do this before raising sales tax for Okaloosa schools