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Letters: Hastings should do right thing by voting no for bond, override

Vice Mayor Jack Hastings calls himself a fiscal conservative, but he will be voting yes on both the $127 million bond and override. If he were a true fiscal conservative, Hastings would be voting no.

We currently have two city of Surprise councilmembers (Mayor Kevin Sartor the other) employed by the Dysart Unified School District who are supporting and using their influence to help pass this school district bond and override. As taxpayers, don’t you think this is a conflict of interest?

The PAC bond political signs say “without a tax rate increase.” Those political signs are misleading to the voters. If passed, this will increase your property taxes by $32 per $100,000 of assessed property value.

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Opinions

Letters: Hastings should do right thing by voting no for bond, override

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Vice Mayor Jack Hastings calls himself a fiscal conservative, but he will be voting yes on both the $127 million bond and override. If he were a true fiscal conservative, Hastings would be voting no.

We currently have two city of Surprise councilmembers (Mayor Kevin Sartor the other) employed by the Dysart Unified School District who are supporting and using their influence to help pass this school district bond and override. As taxpayers, don’t you think this is a conflict of interest?

The PAC bond political signs say “without a tax rate increase.” Those political signs are misleading to the voters. If passed, this will increase your property taxes by $32 per $100,000 of assessed property value.

My current 2025 assessed property taxes are $1,630 a year with $985 going towards Dysart Schools. That is 49.37% of my overall taxes being paid to the DUSD.

Also, with the recent national average of homeowners’ insurance premiums increasing over 24% within the last few years this has increased everyone’s mortgage payments and makes it difficult for people who are retired and on fixed incomes.

We see how well charter schools do here in Surprise and around the state of Arizona that have great student success rates and highly dedicated teachers with much less resources available to them as they don’t get funding by local property taxes.

With the recent Las Vegas three-day training event this past summer when they sent 200 Dysart employees on a $426,644 spendthrift of taxpayer money shows how blatantly the misuse of taxpayer funds are being used.

That’s why I will be voting no and encourage others to vote no in this mail-in-only election.

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