I agree that an additional sales tax referendum would have been a good option to consider, but do you think that would have passed? I doubt it. For me it came down to this decision: Pay more out of my pocket to invest in educating the students in our county, or vote no and watch our schools and our childrev suffer the consequences.

As far as being "fair"...my property taxes were $6,000 5 years ago and now they are $4,000. Our property owners are paying LESS now and our school system is suffering. I don't mind paying a few hundred a year more, because I fel like investing in education should be a priority. Narrow minded voters did not realize that that it would have helped their property value in the long run! (Do you really think the Chamber of Commerce would have supported a tax increase without understanding the long term payoff?)

You want to talk about UNfair....For every dollar Volusia County sends to Tallahassee, when legislators return it for education funding we get back about 96 cents. They take 4% of it and give it to other counties.

Reading over these ignorant posts reinforces my belief that most of the voters in Seminole County are indeed smarter than our uniformed voters.

To Sensible Citizens: The voters of Seminole County are not 'smarter' than the voters of Volusia County. The FUNDAMENTAL issue with the referendum is NOT whether the schools need these additional funds or whether the schools could be better stewards of the monies they have today. The FUNDAMENTAL issue is WHY does the burden for this extra funding fall ONLY on the property owner. You stated 'the voters of Volusia County don't want to pay for it'. YOu see the referendum presented did not ask ALL Volusia County citizens to pay for it - it only asked property owners to fund it. I agree education is key to our future BUT the plate for the additional funds should be passed to EVERYONE - not just the property owners. Our new favorite word is 'FAIR' - requiring EVERYONE to pay their fair share to get good education would be the appropriate route to go. If an additional sales tax referendum, for example, had been presented it most likely would have passed.