An editorial from The Journal
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Machiavellianism is rearing its ugly head again this week in Jefferson County.
This time it is being brought to us courtesy of the West Virginia Liberty Political Action Committee, who thinks the end, abolishing the Excess Levy at Jefferson County Schools, justifies the means, blatantly deceiving county residents.
Jefferson County residents have recently been receiving robocalls and seeing social media posts telling them the Excess Levy will “cost the average Jefferson County homeowner $1,000 a year.” The warnings also state people should vote the levy down unless they “want to see (their) county government double (their) property tax.”
We could call this misinforming, or misleading. But we’ll just go ahead and call it what it is: lying.
If the Excess Levy passes Saturday, county residents’ property taxes will remain exactly the same. If it fails, homeowners’ taxes will go down by 45.9 cents per every $100 of assessed value – the rate set when the Excess Levy was first put into effect seven decades ago.
Were the robocalls to relay that latter bit of information, there would be no grounds for complaint. And, in fact, it might even have been enough to get some homeowners to vote “No,” in the attempt to save a few bucks at the expense of education.
But that wasn’t good enough for the WVLPAC. They felt the need to make up their own, more sensational set of “facts” in the attempt to scare up “No” votes in order to get their way.
These despicable tactics are an injustice to Jefferson County citizens. It is our sincere hope that they do not influence the end result of Saturday’s vote.
Once again, we encourage Jefferson County citizens to vote “Yes” on the Excess Levy.
Saving such a small percentage on our property taxes isn’t worth sabotaging our classrooms. The means wouldn’t justify the end.
