The runoff elections have been scheduled for Saturday, June 15, 2019.
We deserve better.
Brutus
Runoff election day
May 20, 2019
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El Paso Independent School District | 
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Posted by Brutus
EPISD voting
May 17, 2019Evidently you do not have to live in district 7 of EPISD in order to be a board member representing that district.
In the spirit of the situation would it be ok for those of us who live in other districts to go ahead and vote in the upcoming district 7 runoff?
We deserve better
Brutus
2 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
EPISD graduation ceremonies on Memorial Day
May 13, 2019Dan Wever sent this in:
- Memorial Day is a day for remembering and honoring military personnel who died in the service of their country, particularly those who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle. In other words, the purpose of Memorial Day is to memorialize the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
He asks “Why did the EPISD schedule 3 graduations on this day?”
We deserve better
Brutus
15 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Penny swap or dime increase?
May 8, 2019There is a problem with the “penny swap” that the voters approved for EPISD.
Quite simply there is not enough money now being generated by the interest and sinking fund (I&S) rate to pay EPISD’s debts.
Last year the voters approved reducing the I&S rate by 10 cents per hundred dollars of property valuation and increasing the maintenance and operations rate the same amount (M&O) thus leaving the combined rate the same as the previous year.
Then since the district did not have enough money to make their bond payments (I&S) they took money out of an existing fund balance. In short they took our I&S money over a period of years and did not pay down all of the debt they could, thus creating a fund and increasing our borrowing costs.
You can see that the new I&S tax rate only generated $29 million. They needed $40.1 million to pay their debt payments.
What they did was reduce their fund balance from $30 million to $18.9 million. They can probably do this again next year but then they will run out of money.
They cannot take the money from their maintenance and operations fund.
The Texas attorney general ruled last year that:
“Districts do not have authority to increase the maintenance and operations tax rate to create a surplus to pay debt service
with maintenance and operations tax revenue. See TEX. TAX CODE § 26.012(16) (defining “maintenance and operations” as “any lawful purpose other than debt service for which a taxing unit may spend property tax revenues” (emphasis added)).”
The net result is that the district will have to raise the I&S rate either this year or next.
The voters got hoodwinked.
We deserve better
Brutus
9 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Reading, writing, but no arithmetic
May 3, 2019Take a look at this slide from the Tuesday, April 30, 2019 EPISD board meeting:
Most of us probably did not realize that local revenue of $32 million plus state revenue of $3 million adds up to $50 million.
That’s because it does not.
This kind of sloppiness at the board level tells us a lot about why we are where we are.
We deserve better
Brutus
5 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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