Carmel voter: make sure your votes for referendum & state legislature align

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Dear Editor:

Recently, our community has heard a lot about the school referendums in Carmel and Westfield and why they are so important to our local public schools.

As a proud 2024 graduate of Carmel High School, I know firsthand how critical these referendums are for the continued functioning of our exceptional public schools. Largely absent from the conversation, however, is the reasoning why these referendums even need to be placed on the ballot in the first place.

Across the state, a record 38 Indiana school districts have referendum questions on the ballot, largely due to a property tax reform law enacted by Republicans in the state legislature last year (SEA 1) that reduced the property tax revenue schools were expected to receive by over $700 million statewide, including tens of millions of dollars from Carmel and Westfield schools.

These referendums offer another reminder that what happens at the Indiana Statehouse trickles down to our local communities and to our local schools, who are now forced to deal with a problem imposed on them by our state lawmakers who refuse to provide our public schools with adequate state resources.

Your votes for the referendum and the state legislature are intricately connected. If you’re choosing to support the referendum, do your research to determine whether your choice for State Representative or State Senator is a vocal, hands-on supporter of the referendum, or if their support is empty optics and backtracking on the choices that led us here.

Make sure your votes for our local schools and for our state officials align.

Ben Boyce
Carmel