Try and figure out the political economy of the school levy in Morgan County. Bet you can’t.
There are the working poor who are against the levy. A woman who works for the Town of Bath said today that fully three months of her pay goes to pay for the levy. She can’t afford it. She’s voting against it. She also believes that school funding should be based on a progressive state income tax — so that those who can afford it pay more, and those who can’t — like herself — pay less.
There are the working poor who support the levy because they either work for the schools or their children have graduated from Berkeley Springs High School and gone on to attend major universities and done well in life.
There are wealthy people without children against the levy because they will save thousands of dollars a year in taxes.
There are wealthy people without children who are for it because they believe investing in education will make for a stronger community.
There are liberals who are for the levy because they support public education.
There are liberals against the levy because they see the school system funneling unquestioning children into the maw of corporate America.
There are conservative Republicans who believe we should shrink government down to a size where you can flush it down the toilet. They are against the levy.
But then there are also conservative Republicans who are for the levy.
Two of those — Charles Trump, who is running for West Virginia State Senate in November, and Daryl Cowles, a member of the House of Delegates from Morgan County who is facing a challenger from his right in the May 13 primary — explained their support today in downtown Berkeley Springs.
“I’m hoping it will pass,” Trump said. “The Board, after defeat of the levy at 100 percent, worked very hard to pare its budget, find some efficiencies and cut some expenditures. This levy that is proposed now is substantially lower than the one that the citizens rejected last year. Over the life of the levy, it’s about $9 million lower over a five year period than what was proposed last year. The difference is a little less than $2 million less per year.”
When asked why it failed last year, Trump said “it’s a pocketbook issue for some people.”
“The economy has not been great. And I’m sympathetic to people who have struggles making regular payments on all their bills and obligations and taxes. That was part of it.”
“We have to compete with school systems in Maryland and Virginia for teachers. And teachers are like anyone else. They are going to consider the compensation and pay. The levy helps us remain competitive. We are still under our neighboring states and even our neighboring counties to the east — Berkeley and Jefferson. But Morgan County is such a wonderful place that if you stay reasonably close you will have lots of good teachers who chose to live here even if they would get paid a little bit more somewhere else. But without the levy, that separation becomes greater.”
If the levy loses, what happens?
“If it loses, the board will have to make some pretty dramatic cuts,” Trump said. “I’m urging people to vote their own conscience. But I would urge them to seriously consider some pretty dramatic deleterious effects on the school system if it fails.”
Cowles said that he too supports the levy.
“It’s important to get the levy enacted and get the funding to the local school system,” Cowles said.
Why did it lose so badly last year?
“It’s certainly an indication that times are tough,” Cowles said. “The economy is tough. Family budgets are tight right now. I don’t think it was so much a statement against our teachers or our school system but an indication of the tough economy we’ve had for a number of years.
Have things changed on the levy since last year?
“Certainly the citizens are more in tune with what it means to have a levy as opposed to not have a levy,” Cowles said. “But the biggest thing that has changed is the levy proposal. It is now a compromise levy, a 70 percent levy instead of the 100 percent levy. It’s a tax reduction and an effort to get funding to the schools and the teachers and the students and recognize the difficult economy. It is a bit of a compromise.”
What will happen if the levy loses?
“It would be bad, it would be devastating,” Cowles said. “We would lose about $5 million or $6 million worth funding that goes to our local schools. It would be difficult to overcome. This levy is local money for local students for local schools and gives us local control over the things we need to do in our school system. And certainly I support local control and local funding.”