Ah yes, it's back to school and back to scraping up enough money to pay for school taxes.  Binghamton is fair about it, offering the resident to pay in 3 equal installments. Not where I live! Johnson City makes you pay all a couple of thousand dollars in one lump sum....no other options available.  Yesterday, I spent most of the day trying to seek an answer as to why Binghamton allows payments and Johnson City does not. At the end of the day, I felt as though I was in a bad episode of The Twilight Zone. In all defense, I don't believe there WAS a bad episode of The Twilight Zone, but you know what I mean.

I was told by Johnson City officials that "it's always been done that way", "that's up to the board" and my favorite, "I agree with you, but don't know why." At least they were honest.  Saying it's always been done this way is not acceptable in my head. I mean, the Southern Tier has just suffered great loss with a history-making flood, where if they didn't lose everything, they were forced to do un-budgeted home improvements. And then, there's the general economy. I know, I won't go there. So I guess the school board is unaware of all this when they took a vote last fall, after the flood that devastated Johnson City and other cities and towns in our region. But that's the way it's always been done. Very sad. Welcome to the Twilight Zone Southern Tier! I would love your feedback.  What is your situation and do you agree?

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