Letter to the Editor: Blame OTC tax defeat on school's strengths

In all the news accounts speculating about voter attitudes toward Ozarks Technical Community College’s tax levy increase proposal, both before the election and after its heavy defeat last month, one major issue never came up.

Missing from the discussion was the fact that the college has appeared to grow and prosper in size and scope over the years without additional tax increases.

Whether that was consciously on the minds of the voters hasn’t been tested, of course. But with a perception of the school’s strength and solvency planted firmly in the public mind, especially with the recent building of a Christian County campus, it might have led many voters to question why a tax increase was needed on such short notice, or even at all.

—Mike Schilling, Springfield