By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall
We read with great interest the News-Herald article providing a glowing report of the stellar performances of Lakeland Community College. Allow me to give another side of the story. How much is this institution costing the Lake County taxpayers?
From the Lake County Auditor’s Schedule A below, we can see that Lakeland’s annual property tax revenue, assuming only a 94% collection rate, is $19,785,360. And that does not include any State of Ohio revenues.
Looking at my personal property tax statement, I see that I chipped in $412.35 to Lakeland for the year.
You may ask how many students attend Lakeland Community College? From the News-Herald article, we learned that 4,766 students attended the college.
How much did the Lake County taxpayers contribute to each student?
How does $4,151.36 per student per year sound to you? [$19,785,360 / 4,766]
We would love to know how much the Holden University Center is costing the taxpayers. The building across from the main campus is for students wanting to earn 4 year degrees or a M.B.A. They had a total of 67 undergraduate, and 20 graduate students occupying that building.
We would be remiss if we did not remind Lake County taxpayers about the absolute cornerstone of Lakeland Community College. Let’s hear it…it is priceless!
Can I please get my money back? If we do not use the services of the school, library, etc., why are we obligated to pay for unused services?
Any tax that, if unpaid, causes the taxpayer to be homeless, is immoral!
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Categories: Lakeland Community College