Stan Geiger

They've Become Red

I had a job, oh, 20 years or so back. One of my fellow workers was, well, a rather practiced moocher. I don’t recall his actual name. He had a carrot top, so everybody just called him Red.

Red, they told me, was homeless before an acquaintance employed by the company got him a job. He was living on packets of wieners, beer and pool tables. He was a pretty fair pool shooter.

There was a little hole-in-the-wall beer joint on North Sheridan at which a few of the crew would gather after work. We’d sit down at a table and somebody would order a round. Then the next guy would buy a round, then the next guy and so forth. Everybody would take a turn. Everybody, that is, but Red.

Red would enter the bar with the crew. But after getting his first beer he would wander off to the pool table. He would do his own thing---until somebody in our crew hollered at the bartender for another round. Then, all of the sudden, Red would be standing around the table.

Like I say, he was practiced.

One day Red came to me with a plea for twenty bucks. He said he would pay me back come payday. I obliged. When payday rolled around, as promised, Red paid me back the twenty. A couple of days later, however, he reappeared at the loan window. I obliged again. He paid me back again.

This process became a ritual that lasted for several pay periods until I finally cut him off. Red never failed to pay me back. But what I realized was Red always had twenty bucks of my money. I didn’t have it; he had it.

So it goes with school districts these days. They come out with lists of needs. Bond issues are passed to pay for the needs. Taxes are collected for years to pay off the debts---plus interest. And just about the time old debts are set to be retired, school districts come up with new lists of needs. New bond proposals are put forth.

Hence, the debt never goes away. It’s always there. It’s a Red scenario.

School districts always argue the new debt won’t increase taxes. That’s not quite true. It can’t be true. If it were, the new bond issues wouldn’t be bigger than the old bond issues. Because old debt is retired as new debt is issued, the millage might not increase. But taxes paid increase. Inflation sees to that. The more valuable the property the more money the mills produce.

It is time to put an end to this game.

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