The $1.2 million is an estimate to pay for bleachers, a concession stand, restrooms and other improvements to the baseball complex. It also included the cost of removing the existing structures and the additional concrete work involved. All of this is required by the ADA.

This bond adds many classrooms including classroom additions at some existing schools.

You have continued to post false information about KISD school costs on your website. You have failed to include items such as inflation costs, furniture, computers, and roadways.

You have yet to explain to anyone how you would have KISD accommodate the additional 9000 students expected to arrive in the next three years. We already have 3000 elementary students who spend their whole day in portables and 8000 secondary students who spend part of their day in portables. What is your plan for the additional students if the bond fails as a result of your efforts?

Texas Ethics complaints mean nothing unless substantiated. Your group has been fond of filing complaints in an effort to divert attention from the real issues.

I am frankly sick and tired of your efforts to mislead our community and I will be very disappointed if your tactics succeed again as they did in May.

I have no idea what is running on the radio (or even the television, for the most part). This election season is so sour — brutal, even — that I don’t even want to hear or see much of anything by this point… and that’s completely aside from our local bond issue. But I would have said that it’s been pretty acrimonious for quite a while, wouldn’t you?

We all have a horse in this race; you can’t live in Katy and not be aware of the impact our schools have, and will continue to have. But more importantly, we’re all neighbors — whether we live north or south of the freeway, east or west of the Grand Parkway. And on November 8, we will all still be here.

Hopefully, we’ll still be a community that can respect itself, and one another.  At the end of the day, AD, that matters to me a great deal.

I suspect that you and I would find ourselves in agreement in a number of areas:  transparency in government, and a well-informed electorate come to mind.  As it happens, I think that Katy is a very-well informed community now, thanks to the efforts of many people — your group among them.  But I also think that the bond issue has become very divisive, and some folks have grown quite heated.

My blog is not the place for heat;  I don’t promote it, mostly because I don’t tolerate it well.  I try to make the best decisions I can, and I try to deliver my thoughts fully and honestly.    I’d like to see the same in the place I call home.

Meanwhile, back to the actual subject of the bond — you’ve done it again. You dropped partial information, and then tried to make people draw a conclusion. KISD is not proposing to simply put up a concession stand. The existing facilities and surrounding bleachers aren’t going to simply stand up and walk themselves away, nor are bleachers going to reconstruct themselves elsewhere. Furthermore, the ADA requirements are not the same, AD, as simply putting up a kitchen or bathroom stalls… and I suspect you know that.

Why do you keep using bits and pieces, AD? Surely you recognize by now that folks are able to find the rest of the story. Aren’t you at all concerned about what this does to your group’s credibility?

Also — while yesterday’s editorial in the Katy Times seems to have doubled the cost, I found this bit interesting:

Last year, Katy High School made it to the state title game without playing a single home playoff game because its facilities were inadequate, costing the district tens of thousands of dollars in revenue.

Since AC is still in elementary school and my world is still full of short people who lose their lunch money, I didn’t know this. Did you?

What other tricks can you do for us?

The Master is right about the debt service tax rate. The effective rate for this year is really $0.37 since the Board will be moving $4.25 million from the general fund (as allowed by law) to compensate for moving 4 cents from the debt service rate to the M&O (general fund) rate. This smart accounting maneuver enabled the district to receive over $5 million in state matching funds for KISD that otherwise would have been spent somewhere else in the state.

It is my understanding that the debt service rate can be raised to $0.50, but the district’s conservative analysis indicates that the rate could be kept at $0.40 with the passage of this bond and a future bond in 2009.

So the bond, if passed, would result in an increase of 3 cents in the effective debt service rate which would cost the owner of a home appraised at $165,000 about 12 cents a day. In addition, as the Master points out our total school property tax rate will decrease by about 25% or more from the 2005 number due to the state’s buydown of the rate.

The school property tax rates of seniors with an over 65 homestead exemption would not be affected by the passage of the bond.

This is a great deal for all in the KISD community.

I believe you’re right; I have misstated the impact. While I do not claim to be an expert in school district bond issues, I have done some research and here is what I believe to be the story on the KISD Debt Service rate.

– In 2005-2006 it was $0.37
– In 2006-2007 it is $0.33 — but . . . the 2006-2007 rate required to completely service the debt is actually $0.37. The $0.33 rate is an artifact of KISD’s (perfectly legal) attempt to keep school taxes as low as possible by taking advantage of state funding options.

From www.katybondinfo.org (click on the Property Taxes button on the left):

“. . . In order to receive over $5 million in state matching funds in 2006/07 without increasing the total tax rate, the Board of Trustees is planning to move 4 cents from the I&S rate (debt service) to the M&O (maintenance & operations) rate giving an M&O rate of $1.485 and an I&S rate of $0.33 for 2006. By state law the district will be able to move about $4.25 million from the general fund in order to fully cover the debt servicing expenses for 2007.

For 2007 HB1 provides for a 33.33% reduction of the 2005 M&O rate resulting in a rate of $1.087 per $100 of valuation. The Board of Trustees has the option of raising the M&O rate by 4 cents to $1.127 so that Katy ISD can benefit from over $5 million in state matching funds. The I&S rate will likely be $0.40 for 2007 if the bond passes. This represents an effective 3 cent increase of this rate from 2007. Note that the rate of 0.33 for 2006 is artificial because the debt servicing fund is being supplemented by monies from the general fund as allowed by state law so that Katy ISD can benefit from over $5 million in state matching funds.

Passing this bond would likely result in a 3 cent (or less) increase in the debt service rate. On a home valued at $115,000 an increase of 3 cents would result in a tax bill that was $30 higher after subtracting the $15,000 homestead exemption. This is equivalent to about 8 cents per day.”

This ‘accounting switcheroo’ is confirmed in the cover letter to the KISD 2006 - 2007 budget. From the KISD web site (link ): (Last paragraph at the bottom of page 1):

“The Debt Service Fund is used to account for payment of principal and interest on the District’s long-term debt. The District’s Debt Service expenditure budget for 2006-07 is $67,207,000. As with the General Fund, the primary revenue sources are local property taxes and state funds. Local revenues of $46,926,630 are based on a Debt Service tax rate
of $.33 and state funds of $14,475,473. Other Sources include $4,250,000 transferred in from the General Fund and $1,561,815 of interest earnings on bond proceeds.”

So without the new bond, and without accounting shell games, the 2006 - 2007 rate to cover the Debt Service Fund would be $0.37.

The rate is set each year by the Board of Trustees. While we do not know what the Board will do if the new bond passes, let’s assume that they will raise the Debt Service rate to $0.40. My understanding is that $0.40 is the maximum rate allowed by law. I also understand that if the Debt Service rate falls below $0.29, KISD would begin to lose state funding assistance for its debt, so the “local school tax minimizing window” for the Debt Service rate is narrow.

Let’s assume the “worst case” where bond issue passes and the Board of Trustees raises the Debt Service rate to $.40 from the current (effective rate of) $0.37 and keeps it there for years to come. This “worst case” impact will be an additional $30 / $100,000 / year in assessed value on houses in KISD (not the $70 / $100,000 / year that is implied by the difference between $0.40 and the $0.33 published Debt Service rate for 2006 - 2007).

This “worst case” would appear to be the maximum impact on KISD taxes if this (or any other bond issue) passes. Once the Debt Service rate hits $0.40 then the impact of additional bond issues on annual KISD taxes is zero, but until it does hit $0.40, it is incorrect to say there is no impact.

My apologies.