West Shore Banking on School Debt Millage Success

[XLFD]

When sorting through the mail of my recently departed mother a little over a week ago, I found a letter from an organization called "YES for Ludington Area School District" (aka "Yes for LAS", like them on Facebook).  I put it aside as something interesting, but not a bill.  I opened it on Saturday and found this letter inside:

It instructs her to vote "Yes" on her absentee ballot, so whoever sent out this mailing, and I'm sure other regular absentee ballot voters in the district received them, did their research to target this segment of the voting population in a rather clandestine way.  The very bottom of the letter indicates that the "Ludington Area Schools Committee" authorized and paid for the letter, and it was not printed at the taxpayer expense.  

The absence of the mailer specifying that mailing costs were not at taxpayer expense, leads me to believe that they were at taxpayer expense, because the school has set aside a small yet significant portion of this 'bond' to help promote it's passage.

Found herein on page 15.  You will also note that the committee that sent these mailers has a P.O. Box in Ludington, #729.  Looking up that 'address' one finds that a couple of people signing on that mailer share that address, the Biggs':

Interestingly, Raymond Biggs main job is to be the President of West Shore Bank.  Before we ask why might he be using his personal address as the address for the "YES for LAS" committee, let us also see a pattern among the other signatories of this letter.  Four other members of West Shore Bank have added their signatures. 

See this page:  West Shore Bank Board.  A majority, 9 of 17, of the signers are either on the WSB Board or the wife of a board member.  The other members are prestigious members of the community, but neither of them are part of another local bank or lending institution.

Ask yourself, why exactly would the West Shore Bank be so involved with getting this debt millage/bond issue passed, even utilizing funds (possibly donated by the bank since they have a supermajority of the WSB Board on board) to assure its success at the polls?  A hundred million dollars has to be loaned to the school from somewhere.  Guess where?

If you love hidden agendas, local lending institutions making even more money at your expense, and the prospect of your fellow citizens losing their homes to the bank in foreclosure because they can't afford the ever-rising taxes, vote for the debt millage May 7th.  

[shinblind]

How to split the $400,000.

Is this how West Shore Bank is able to have Ludrock?  Do they use the 'free' music concert to generate goodwill so the taxpayers won't notice that they are paying school election bond expenses for  40 years?

Or is Ludrock and the election costs joined at the hip so to speak and taxpayers will be footing the bill for both events through the miracle creative accounting?

I haven't been able to ascertain what the fee for underwriting the bond is in Michigan but in other states it is limited by law to a bit under 1%, 95 to 98 basis points.

I would expect that West Shore Bank could make a profit at that rate as other bank do, therefore the $400,000 in excessive fees (Election Costs) will be their vig for handling the money above the more normal profit from a school bond.

Not a bad haul. If the bond passes will there be a little something extra in the Christmas bonus for the executives and board members this year? Or will the Rolling Stones be booked to play Ludrock?

[Freedom Seeker]

I've kind of wondered with the same speculation, shinblind. Plus what is the profits from the APR on a commercial loan for 40 years?