Spring ISD doesn't let "no" vote stop it from raising tax rate
Wow! Dan Patrick (KSEV-700) just spoke with Dr. Bert Williams, who led the charge to defeat Spring ISD's bond initiative, and Dr. Williams told Patrick that the election defeat didn't stop Spring ISD. At a board meeting on September 20, the trustees approved raising the tax rate from $1.87 to $1.95. The reason the trustees say they can do this is because, according to Dr. Williams, two years ago the district published the rate increase proposal. This was never brought up during the bond election, according to Dr. Williams, so it has blindsided the residents of Spring ISD who voted down the tax increase.
As a result of this tax increase, Dr. Williams says that Spring ISD residents are now paying about $9,000 per student.
This an amazing show of chutzpah on the part of Spring ISD's board. Considering how lopsided the bond vote was (4,595 to 1,741), Spring ISD board members might find themselves voted out the next time they are up for election.
UPDATE: An emailer points to an archived Chronicle story (9-18-2003, Kim Canon) that says this new rate increase is due to the bond referendum passed in 2003. Here's the relevant paragraph:
After the October bond sale, which will finance land purchases, and architectural and design fees, the district will sell another $75 million in April. There will be two more bond sales in the following two years. Snow said the district's debt service tax rate will stay at 32 cents per $100 property valuation this year, but will rise to 38 cents in the 2004-05 school year and 45 cents in 2005-06.
It's kind of funny how Spring ISD didn't go out of its way to publicize the coming rate increase as it was trying to get another referendum pushed through.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: That's an informative email, and just the sort of thing that the blog model of public conversation encourages. It's a little disappointing that the emailer didn't leave a name, or contribute on the forum, though.
Laurence Simon has called blogs the glue that holds various sorts of media together. And that's a pretty accurate description here, if you think about it: Anne posts on a conversation on talk radio (thereby liberating that conversation from the time/place restrictions of radio), and experts on the topic can now email and add their perspective. We serve as a conversation facilitator of sorts, and readers more expert than us on any given topic can chime in.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/04/05 04:44 PM | Print |
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