Could it be that the people behind the bond issue at EPISD really don’t think that the bonds will be approved tomorrow?
Are they planning to do a two step with a subsequent second attempt like the Ysleta district did?
Could failure of this bond issue become their excuse to make sweeping changes at the district?
Is it possible that they will work to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse?
Am I getting carried away?
We deserve better
Brutus
4 Comments | 
El Paso Independent School District | 
Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Texas is now allowing more ways to identify yourself (or yourself as someone else) at the polling place.
We got this flyer in the mail the other day:
So if you know someone that is not going to vote just show up with something from their mailbox.
We deserve better
Brutus
5 Comments | State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Most of us remember the children’s hospital that was supposed to be financially self sustaining. We only needed to give them permission to sell $120 of bonds and from then on the operation would pay for itself. That did not turn out to be true and the children’s hospital ended up being part of the county hospital.
Back in 2008 the voters approved the sale of the bonds. In June of 2015 we wrote in Paying on the never never that at that point we had paid almost $42 million in interest on the bonds while only reducing the principal amount about $6 million.
We have learned from a notice in the Times that the county was to hold a public hearing on November 2, 2016.
The purpose of the hearing was to discuss the issuance of bonds used to refinance the original bonds. According to the notice “The maximum aggregate face amount of the Bonds to be issued with respect to the refinancing of the Project is $120,000,000.”
We deserve better
Brutus
11 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Of course EPISD needs bond money to fix our schools. Past school boards have neglected basic maintenance that should have been paid for out of maintenance and operations funds, not future bonds.
What they don’t need is a lot of money all at one time.
Take the case of the new Jefferson high school stadium. The school board voted this year to spend $2.8 million dollars “leftover” from their 2007 bond issue.
By the way, we are not opposed to Jefferson having a stadium. We are opposed to Jefferson having a stadium that the voters did not approve.
The voters did not authorize building the stadium when they voted nine years ago in 2007. If for some reason the district ended up with unspent money it should have been returned to the voters by reducing debt.
Can you imagine what will happen nine years from now if we give the district over six hundred million dollars all at one time?
They can’t handle the construction involved with that much money in just five years.
The reasonable thing for the district to do is to ask for a smaller sum, say $100 million. Tell us specifically what they want to do with it. Convince us to approve the money. Then do exactly what they said they want to do with the money in a short period of time. Earn our respect and trust. Then ask for another dollop.
We deserve better
Brutus
16 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
A concerned reader sent this in:
3 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
You must be logged in to post a comment.