Taxpayers in the Avon Grove School District are protesting the constantly rising property taxes and financial hedges on interest rates with large signs on their barns, writes Joseph DiStefano for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The signs vary from calls to save grandma’s home to a request to stop gambling taxpayer dollars. The latter refers to the financial hedges the school district bought from the bank with the hope of protecting its construction borrowing costs from the risk of rising interest rates.

However, since interest rates have instead fallen, Avon Grove now owes at least $1.8 million due next summer, unless rates rise dramatically before then.

Another issue is the lack of taxpaying industries in the area, said David Galligan, a University of Pennsylvania professor of animal health economics, who lives on a farm in Lincoln University. A lot of property is tax-exempt due to land conservation tax breaks. This puts the burden of growing school-related costs squarely on the backs of homeowners, including elderly residents who have to survive on a fixed income.

“School taxes are killing us,” said Galligan.

Read more about the Avon Grove School District in The Philadelphia Inquirer here.