Editor,

We all want a strong education system, but we also want to get the biggest bang for our tax dollars.

The current “Build Baldwin Now” drive by many well-meaning people has unfortunately been fraught with deceit and what I believe to be illegal use of taxpayers’ money.

Using tax money to print yard signs, flyers, campaign buttons, commitment documents and “informational” flyers to sway the taxpayers’ votes constitutes improper use of tax dollars, not to mention that those expenditures fail to give the full impact of the proposed legislation for your vote on March 31; those responsible for these expenditures should be prosecuted.

I believe the only way to have legally funded the “campaign” would have been through donations, not from taxes or from money obtained from other sources.

Additionally, taxpayers need to know that the deceit in this campaign is two-fold.

First, what they are not telling you (or at best are “low-keying”) is that if you vote “Yes” for this bill, you are committing yourself and your fellow taxpayers to 30 years of substantial additional property taxes.

While making permanent what were formerly temporary tax increases, they are wanting you to pay that PLUS and another 8 mill tax and to do that for 30 more years.

They only know what they are going to do with the money for the next 10 years, but they want 20 additional years of your tax dollars for “whatever” they might need.

At their recent scantly advertised Daphne High School “Summit” which was really more of a pep rally combined with a Powerpoint (slide) presentation, they offered no opportunity for questions from the audience in open forum.

That assured no dissent or opportunity for further enlightenment on an issue of great magnitude to all of us, including the children they had performing who probably have no clue that if they stay in Baldwin County, they’ll be still paying this tax when they are in their 40s.

Second, they are not advertising that seniors who have previously been exempt from increased property taxes, would not be exempt from this 30 years of additional taxes and that, for those on a fixed income, the results could be financially devastating.

Baldwin County residents are already taxed, insured and subject to fees up to the hilt.

Our governor is now wanting to raise our taxes more (and wanting a huge amount to go into education).

BP has given millions to education in Baldwin County.

This latest attempt to lock us into huge tax increases for 30 years and to attempt to do so without laying all the facts on the table is disingenuous at best.

Please vote NO on March 31!

Linwood H. Snell Jr.

Daphne