WHCU 870 - March 14, 2007
Guests:
Opening reference: the Ithaca City School District's recently approved $98.4 million Facilities Bond.
Barbara: Well let's talk about that a little bit, because in reading about that bond proposition's success, I think it was in the same newspaper or one that was in the next couple of days, it was big headlines about what they proposed the school budget increase. So, what kind of impact does that have? Well, let me tell you how it's having an impact on me, personally. I'm now retired, so I have a fixed income which takes care of me very nicely, I don't have any complaints about that, but I do have to be careful, so I have begun I have taken the first couple of steps towards leaving this community. Myself.
Mark: You're, really?
Barbara: Yes, because I can't afford to live here for very much longer. I just don't have that kind of income that will sustain this kind of lifestyle, so that's how it's affecting me.
Mark: Well, that's news to hear. I mean, to hear Barbara Blanchard who is one of most prominent and well-regarded citizens say that she is thinking about that in light of the situation, the tax situation, I think really says it all, I mean that is huge.
Barbara: She's gotten past thinking about it, she's taken two affirmative steps that would be, now this isn't going to happen tomorrow, at all.
Mark: Thank goodness.
Barbara: But, you have to get, you know there are a number of things that you have to do when you are making a decision like this and I've taken step one and step two on that decision making process.
Mark: Barbara, maybe you can tell us in this way, you obviously have Arkansas roots, you've spent a lot of time down there in the recent years, you probably have a pretty good handle on the situation. What would be the property taxes, you know, roughly speaking, on a house comparable to yours here down in Arkansas?
Barbara: Well, I had the experience of just selling a house about a year ago in Arkansas, which was...
Mark: in Eden Isle?
Barbara: In Eden Isle, which was a much nicer house than I lived in here. The property taxes on that house, which was everything, school, county, local property taxes, were roughly one sixth of what my property tax bill is here.
Dave: One sixth, for a nicer house?
Barbara: For a nicer house.
Dave: Let me point out to you, and kind of personally, my parents who lived on Long Island sold a house and went down to North Carolina. The property taxes are one twelfth of what they paid on Long Island and they made a huge profit off the house because of the high real estate prices in New York State, state wise, obviously Long Island's is higher too, but uh there is this group of both people who are, you know in their older years, and also even younger groups who are saying, you know what, I cannot afford to live here that's the bottom line. I can't afford my lifestyle in this particular part. I'm sorry to hear that from you. I gotta say that it's a little bit of a shell shock, I understand, but I also think, wow, if you're making that call, how many other people listening right now are doing the same thing?
Barbara: Well, it takes, and there is a lot of soul-searching that goes into something like that and you can sit around and complain and feel resentful or you can do something about it, and I have felt such a incredible level of resentment over the tax burden for the last couple of years and this was like the icing on the cake and so, I have to do something that will get me out of the [blinding?] mode and into the doing something about it mode.
Dave: So, you're voting with your feet.
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