A Reader Provides a Reason to Vote for the Park City School Bond

Yesterday I wrote an article titled Do You Want to Pay for New Park City Schools for 3 Years, 5 Years, or for 20 Years? It attempted to lay out the case for why citizens may opt to vote down a school bond and pay for rebuilding schools in installments of 3 or 5 years.

Reader, Dave, commented back “I think what you are missing is that most people will not be living in Park City for 20 years. For a homeowner living here in the 5-10 year range the $123 a year option is cheaper for them.” He makes a great point. For an individual who is planning on living here for a “short” period, a bond option, where you pay $123 a year makes sense. It appears that about 12 years is the breakeven point where a bond will cost you more money.

Now, I’m not sure that Dave’s characterization that “most” people, who live here now, won’t be living here in 20 years is accurate. That said, I’m not sure it’s entirely inaccurate. But Anecdotally I don’t see that and the latest US census data shows us that between 2009 and 2013 (5 years) 627 people left Summit County. So, if you extrapolate that, it would be about 2500 people leaving Summit County in the next 20 years. That would be about 6.5% of the current population.

Yet, those macro numbers don’t really matter to an individual or a family. If you are planning on moving out of Park City in the next 11 years, the school bond option may make financial sense for you.

Dave, thanks for pointing that out.