Dear Editor,

The Troup County School Board should not support a tax exemption for senior citizens. Doing so will only serve to shift a greater portion of the burden onto other taxpayers.

Property taxes have long been used to support public schools throughout the United States. We do this to spread the cost of education to every sector of the community without making the taxes overly burdensome on anyone (young families, middle-aged taxpayers or senior citizens). We should share the expense of educating the children equitably because having an educated population improves the quality of life for everyone.

Certainly, if we can afford to cut taxes for everyone, without damaging the quality of education, we should do it. The school board is in the best position to determine if and when school taxes should be adjusted.

Personally, I’m not certain that right now is the best time to reduce school revenue. Troup County stands on the verge of further economic expansion and the Troup County School Board has been asked by community leaders to make the public schools institutions that will help attract businesses to the region. Therefore, now may not be the right time to reduce our investment in education.

I don’t feel that we should cut taxes for some citizens, to the detriment of others, and I don’t believe it would be wise to put our school system at a disadvantage during this time of economic opportunity.

Now is the time for all of Troup’s citizens to come together and ask how we can help the Troup County School Board move the school system forward and what more each of us can do to support the youth of this community.

Roy D. Nichols Jr.

LaGrange