On Sept. 11, after taking my kids to the 9/11 memorial site at Mercer County Park, I quietly celebrated by knocking on the 2,000th door on my campaign trail. Since I announced my candidacy for WW-P Board of Education on July 26, 2017, I have reached out and talked with many residents, including old and young ones, those with and without kids in the schools, and Democrats and Republicans.
A predominant topic they brought up is our high taxes. Although I have tried to explain to them that reducing tax is not the responsibility of school board members, I have to admit that a big chunk of our property tax goes to our schools.
Many senior residents have informed me that they are considering moving away, because they can’t afford our taxes any more. Several said they couldn’t move because their employment was tied to their residency in West Windsor. Regardless of whether they could move or not, when and where to move was always a topic on their mind.
Many parents with kids in our schools don’t have long-term plans here, either. Some have revealed to me their “tax strategy:” they plan to put their houses on the market as soon as their youngest kid graduates from high school. While feeling sorry for their decision, I can feel the pain associated with having to pay high taxes without benefiting from it.
Our taxes are making our town unsustainable. A sustainable town should be attractive to our young and old alike. We can’t afford to be just a “school commuting town” where parents come here to send their kids to schools, and leave as soon as their kids graduate.
Once we lose our seniors, we lose an important tax source and our history. Without those people who have no kids in the schools, taxes on those with kids in school would be so high that eventually everyone would have to leave. Without our history, we don’t have a place where we and our kids can call our hometown.
Some people argue that our high taxes are justified because of the high quality of education we offer. But statistics have shown that education quality and school funding don’t always have a positively linear relationship. Without affecting our education quality, we can still find ways to reduce school expenses and create more revenue sources.
—Helen Ming
Ming is a candidate running for a West Windsor seat on the school board.
