To the editor:

A few weeks ago I wrote a Letter to Editor in Regards to our school approved voter levy and the district wrote a lengthy rebuttal clarification in the Tyler Tribute

How did I come up with my calculation?

I used the tax anayslis report I was given from RTR’s superintendent, my real estate tax statement and I figured our School voter approved levy taxes were going to double.  I then contacted our county assessor, gave him the bond information, and he ran an estimated tax statement for me.  The Assessor came up with same amounts I did.

Taxes on our farmland will increase by another 1.90 per acre for a total of $3.50.

The School Levy isn’t the only thing we have to deal with increasing for real estate taxes.  Check with your county, city, townships to see how much they are setting their Preliminary 2025 levy’s. From what I am seeing most of them are increasing 5-20%. RTR Schools set their levy close 10%.

This $20 million is for 14 more class rooms for maybe another 50 opened enrolled students, 1.5 million fitness center, another gym and remodeling a building that isn’t even 5 years old yet.  

 We have plenty of room for our district students.  This is costing the RTR Taxpayer another $20 million for open enrolled students.

  I am not against open enrollment.  I have three grandchildren that open enroll to the RTR School District. I am against increased taxes after being promised five years ago with the $35 million our taxes would only increase “This much”.   I am against running our buses 15-20 miles one way over our district lines, twice a day to make it convenient for open enrolled students to come to our school district because we have a new School. If the parents want to open enroll have them bring them to our district line at a pickup point.  Again, five years ago our shuttle buses were a hot topic.  Why isn’t it now?

   Tami Nelson

Ruthton