Me. And anyone else who fully understands the transaction we are being offered. Merger incentive aid is an irrelevant distraction at best, and a charlatan’s trick at worst. The bribe we are being offered will bring no meaningful benefit, just less well educated students, damaged communities, and diminished futures.

New York State Merger Incentive Aid is taxpayer money – meaning it is our money that we paid in – that the state uses to entice voters into approving school mergers. Just the fact that NYS assumes a bribe is necessary, like bait in a trap, should sound like a warning to any thinking person. But it is even worse than that. This bait isn’t even real. It is like baiting a mousetrap with plastic peanut butter. Incentive aid, by its very nature, can not bring any real benefit to schools. It cannot be spent in a meaningful or responsible way.

The purported purpose of this aid is to address any deficits that a merger may emphasize or make more noticeable. So, for example, merger aid is often used to “equalize” tax rates. That is another way of saying that incentive aid is used to fix problems that the merger causes. It is just adding additional tax dollars to the other financial disadvantages that a merger produces. A merger causes certain financial hardships, so let’s add more state tax dollars in an attempt to mask that as much as possible. A fine use for our tax dollars!

A second common use for incentive aid is to supplement funding for capital projects. This does nothing for Canajoharie or Fort Plain: both of our districts are currently in the middle of already funded capital improvement projects. For all regional school districts, the state provides very generous capital aid. Using merger incentive aid for capital projects is just a bait-and switch. It is not really new money: it is just different money, money that is already available to all schools, merged or not.

Third, districts often use incentive aid to supplement operating budgets. This is a real faustian bargain; it creates expectations that cannot be sustained. CVA is experiencing a financial squeeze right now for this exact reason; using temporary incentive aid to supplement regular operations is guaranteed to bite you before the end. Using merger incentive aid to supplement operating budgets is nothing but putting an unfair burden on future taxpayers.

So, a quick review. Using merger incentive aid for its “real” purpose – equalizing tax rates or employment contracts – is entirely unnecessary if schools do not merge. It does not add anything; it just fixes the problems that the merger itself produces. Using the merger aid for capital projects, similarly, does not provide anything that isn’t already available. And using it to supplement ongoing operations is just digging a hole that the district later needs to climb out of. So what is merger incentive aid genuinely good for? It is great for enriching educational consultants. Indeed, consultants have already been enriched by this proposed merger; and if the merger is approved that will just continue. In fact, this provides the only sensible reason why the educational establishment is so devoted to mergers: it is a way to line their own pockets.

Who would be wise to ignore the $84 million that the state is using to bribe us? Everyone. At first glance it may sound good, but only if you ignore the facts and the details. Merger incentive aid is a conman’s trick. It is (fake) bait in a trap. It offers no actual benefit. And it comes with an awful price tag: disruption and reduced learning for students, diminished vitality for communities, and damaged futures for all. (Except those consultants!) DON’T TAKE THE BAIT!