So Nick Jimenez of the Corpus Christi Caller Times is worried about voter turn-out on a school tax hike vote. But it is unclear what he is worried about. Previous school district ballots had dismal turn-outs. This year the school bond and tax propositions are on the Nov. 4 general election, a record turn-out year. Maybe Jimenez and other big-tax liberals are worried about too many voters asking pesky questions on election day.
Jimenez writes that he is worried that “voters may miss the opportunity to cast their ballot on issues crucial to the future of education in Corpus Christi.”
Right. Unlike all those years in the past when fractions of a percent of voters would would turn because the election was on an odd day in late spring.
This year the school district has three propositions up for voter approval. All three spend lots of new money, and the third directly increases the tax burden. A tax increase for what? For teacher pay raises, Jimenez dutifully shills. Really?
While student enrollment has dropped over the last decade, revenue per pupil has almost doubled… Meanwhile, the SAT and ACT scores have dropped. What’s the school district doing with the money it has already taken?
The number of non-teachers on the school district payroll has climbed, while the number of teachers has been reduced.
So the third proposition isn’t about raising taxes to pay teachers, as the Caller Times says. It’s about paying ever more bureaucrats to manage the shrinking number of teachers trying to teach a shrinking number of students while budgets bloom out of control.
Liberals have long supported the disenfranchisement of voters through ambiguous voting dates and confused calendars. That the Texas Legislature has cut through the clutter and empowered taxpayers has the Caller Times and their allies furious. They like talking about democracy, but just hate it when taxpayers are given the opportunity to show up.