Tim Carter: You should ask your school district for a tax refund, too

To The Daily Sun,

About two weeks ago I suggested that you contact your local tax assessor for a refund of part of your real estate taxes because your local schools were closed all last spring.

My tax assessor responded to my request and said he was unable to issue a refund because the N.H. state law only allows him to do this when the market value of a property goes down. He said the state law would have to be changed for all of us to get refunds concerning lowered school costs due to the closure of the schools.

Look at the itemized breakdown of your real estate tax bill. The vast majority of your real estate taxes go to your local schools. If they're not spending all the money you send, they should give back the unspent funds to each of us. That's just common sense. Why would you ever want to overpay for anything?

I decided to write a letter to Ms. Mary Moriarty, the superintendent of the Inter-Lakes School District requesting my partial refund. I sent an email to her five days ago and she's yet to respond. I'm sending a traditional paper letter to her today and then will attend the next school board meeting.

Here's the letter I sent and I suggest you send a similar letter to your school superintendent:

Dear Ms. Moriarty,

Each month I give the Interlakes School District about $800. I'm wondering how I go about applying for a partial refund of this money since you shut down the schools in March.

During the shutdown you had no or significantly reduced expenditures in the following areas:

— Student busing/transportation expense

—Field trips/canceled

— Spring sports activities/canceled

— Utility costs/ reduced

— Professional development for teachers/suspended

— Classroom supplies/no purchases required

— Cafeteria expenses - meals, staff, etc./canceled

— And quite a few more

Please tell me how I go about getting a refund. It's the only fair thing to do.

Tim Carter

Meredith