Some public officials with admirable objectives are being less than straight with this town as it relates to the proposed real estate tax increase. They are pretending that if residents agree to this tax increase, we are in the clear. 

The truth is that these same people will be back next year asking for another real estate tax increase, because, absent the kind of cuts that the Richmond School Board and City Council have proposed, the Richmond Public Schools strategic plan will require an additional $58 million a year from the taxpayers when fully implemented. 

Absent the kind of belt-tightening that the School Board and City Council have adopted despite Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s objections, the RPS strategic plan, when fully implemented, would require a real estate tax increase to $1.47 per $100 of assessed value.

So anyone pretending like Mayor Stoney’s proposed tax increase in 2019 will solve anything is at best uninformed, and at worst, misleading. 

JONATHAN M. YOUNG

Richmond

The writer represents the 4th District on the Richmond School Board.