A group has formed to oppose the passage of a tax levy for the St. Joseph School District up for vote on the November ballot.

Two former St. Joseph School District Board of Education members are taking a stance against Proposition 1 as part of Support A Better SJSD . Chris Danford and Eric Bruder said the $1.15 tax increase is excessive.

“It’s nearly a 40-percent property tax increase,” Danford said. “We’re not anti-education. We’re supporters for a better school district. We want to also do what’s right for the kids and right for the community.”

Bruder said he’s simply against this levy.

“I would fully support a levy of .40 to .50 cents where all of that money is going directly to the teachers,” Bruder said. “If they would come forward with a plan…with the math that says here is the number of classrooms we need. We don’t have them in these areas, we’re going to put temporary classroom spaces in place. We’re going to hire the right number of teachers, we’re going to pay our teachers properly the public’s going to support that. But along with that they have to cover the other side and cut the administrative spending.”

As we reported, the Committee to Move St. Joseph Forward, a campaign in support of the levy launched its efforts last week to urge voters to pass the Proposition 1.

The St. Joseph School District said the tax proposal was developed by the SJSD 1 Vision community engagement program that involved hundreds of St. Joseph residents. The district said, “While the SJSD 1 Vision Task Force considered an option with a larger increase to address identified goals, a decision was reached to take a conservative first step to achieve these goals by restoring the tax rate to the pre-2015 level.”

The proposition is up for vote on the Nov. 7 ballot.

To listen to Danford and Bruder’s interview with 680 KFEQ’s Barry Birr on the Hotline see the audio files below: