Balloting set for Tuesday

Local News

November 2, 2009

Local issues, constitutional amendments to face voters

Anonymous The Weatherford Democrat Mon Nov 02, 2009, 08:12 AM CST

Staff Reports

A few local issues and eleven proposed constitutional amendments form the basis for Tuesday’s election.

A tax increase for Millsap ISD property owners, an tax adjustment for Aledo ISD and the formation of Emergency Services District No. 7 require local voter approval.

Millsap ISD officials are seeking an additional 13 cents per $100 taxable valuation in the tax ratification election.

The potential additional 13-cent revenue remains local and is added to the school district’s ongoing maintenance and operations expenses — the side of the budget that pays for teacher salaries, fuel for buses, utilities, food, equipment and ongoing program costs.

MISD Business Manager Lori Hobbs said that Millsap needs the additional tax revenue to stay competitive with other districts in the state and area and to keep up with inflation.

Administrators for Aledo schools are asking voters to okay a 12.5 percent increase in maintenance and operations taxes to balance a 13-cent decrease in the interest and sinking fund rate.

“We really want to stress to people that we’re not asking to increase people’s taxes at the time the economy is in the position it’s in,” said AISD Superintendent Don Daniels.

The proposed ESD would allow for taxes to fund protection for the Greenwood area of western Parker County.

According to the Texas Department of Rural Affairs, ESDs are political subdivisions set up and approved by local voters for the purpose of raising money through ad valorem taxes. The taxes support emergency fire, rescue and ambulance services within the district.

The rest of the ballot consists of statewide constitutional amendments.

The last proposition on the ballot, Proposition 11, has garnered the most attention as the proposed amendment to the state constitution prohibits governments from taking private property for economic development to increase a tax base.

In addition, Proposition 11 limits the Legislature’s power to grant eminent domain authority to a governmental entity.

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for local governments to seize property under eminent domain.

Gov. Rick Perry, in a broadcast interview, said the proposition is necessary following the decision of the high court.

“That was a very onerous and very troublesome decision by the United States Supreme Court,” Perry said, “and each of the states can then have the ability to put the protections in there for the private property owners. That is exactly what we did in the State of Texas.”

Perry and his GOP gubernatorial opponent agree with the importance of the passage of the proposition.

“Private property rights are fundamental to Texans,” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told the Lufkin Daily News, recently. “When the basic right is threatened, the drive to protect it should unite us.”

Another high-profile proposal, Proposition 7, would allow members of the Texas State Guard or other military organization to hold civil offices.

Service members are already exempt from the statute that limits them from holding office, but the Texas State Guard has been left out of the current law.

In a guest editorial in the Democrat, Weatherford Rep. Phil King voiced his support for Proposition 7.

“Many of our guardsmen have jobs with various local, state and even federal government entities,” said the column, co-written by Reps. Dan Flynn, Aaron Pena and Ryan Guillen, all officers in the State Guard.

“They are teachers, judges, police officers, firefighters, who are committed to the State Guard’s motto of “Texans serving Texans.”

Each of the propositions gained support of two-thirds of the state legislature before being placed on the ballot.

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