Posted: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:30 PM - 14,330 Readers
By: Melissa B. Taboada
LAKEWAY With early voting only days away, opposition is growing against a
$158 million Lake Travis school district bond proposal.
Don Zimmerman, treasurer of Groups Opposed to Unsustainable Education Debt, on Friday announced a political campaign against the bond at a news conference at the Lakeway Activity Center. The event drew about 20 people and turned into a heated debate between the opposition group and those who were involved in designing the bond proposal.
Members of the opposition group said they would support a smaller bond but said the current proposal is too large. They said that Lake Travis has the highest overall debt amount from districts in Central Texas, that plans for future schools and expansions are not compatible with enrollment projections, and that the district's technology spending is four times the amount of other school districts.
"We're spending double what Eanes does, and our kids don't have what theirs do," said Jeff DeCoux, a former Austin software executive who recently started Academic Excellence in Lake Travis, a group opposed to the bond.
"We can't do much about the federal debt, but we control local debt," said Jerri Lynn Ward, who formed the Hudson Bend Community for Kids to oppose the bond. "It's time to rein in the district and make sure the debt is warranted, appropriate and right-sized."
Officials with the Lake Travis district, which has about 7,000 students, said enrollment growth is driving the need for the bond election. But the opposing group asserts that Lake Travis spends thousands more than other districts for buildings and technology and is planning for new schools too soon.
The information was compiled by DeCoux, who has been circulating information about the district's debt and technology spending, among other things.
On Friday, Mike Meyer , a member of the Citizens Bond Advisory Committee , challenged the accuracy of DeCoux's information.
DeCoux said a bond election should be delayed until 2012, should be for between $60 mil
lion and $90 million, and should happen only after a new superintendent has been selected. Former Superintendent Rocky Kirk unexpectedly resigned in July. The district has been searching for a replacement.
The district passed two bond elections in recent years: $126.8 million in 2005 and $36.3 million in 2003. School board members decided not to call for a bond in 2008 because of the soft economy, but board President Jason Buddin said a bond is needed now.
The concerns of the bond's opponents regarding technology costs and the district's debt don't negate the need for a bond, Buddin said. "It doesn't change the feelings about the bond and it being the right amount and the right time," he said. "We're about $167 million in debt. That's not an unreasonable number for a fast-growth district like ourselves. The board is very comfortable with that debt" and the debt assumed if the bond package passes, he said.
The opposition's figure of $518 million in overall obligations is "a false statement," said Johnny Hill, the assistant superintendent for finance. Hill said that figure includes 31 years of accrued interest of the life of the original terms. However, Hill said the district pays down the principal. After making the next debt payments, the district's debt next year will be $318.2 million, Hill said.
The district's overall tax rate of $1.32 includes 28 cents in debt repayment. If the bond passes, the debt repayment portion will go up to 36 cents. The owner of an average-value home of $284,196 after exemptions — which include the district's 20 percent exemption addition to the state's $15,000 homestead exemption — would pay $3,978.74, up $239 from the current rate.
Zimmerman said the issues with the Lake Travis district bond are similar to a $359 million Round Rock school bond proposal in 2005 that he helped defeat.
"People won't listen and won't answer questions," he said. "We had no choice to come up with a political campaign against it."
Additional material from staff writer Alberto Martinez.
