This bond election was in NO way in comparison to the SFSD.
First by the numbers, this was a $17 million dollar bond, heck, the SF City Council passes bonds like that every other week. Our bond issue was $300 million with interest.
But the bigger point was the Brandon School District asked for NO increase in taxes to pass the bond. See, they just paid off a bond, so instead of decreasing taxes they simply are keeping them where they are at currently. It’s called planning ahead, something the SFSD hasn’t been doing.
I argued at the time of the bond we could borrow half and pay the rest as we go. In fact, that suggestion came from school bond task force member, Mark Cotter. It would have roughly saved us $50 million in interest payments (but who’s counting?)
Also, the election vote turnout in Brandon was less then stellar, about 8.2%. While Brandon elections normally don’t draw many people anyway, I think the fact that taxes were NOT increasing didn’t really interest people as being that important. Even if it would not have passed, they would have found a way to keep taxes where they are. I have never known there to be a property tax DECREASE in the region, or at least lately.
I still believe, as I told a SFSD official recently that the SFSD vote was tampered with, but NOT by the counters, but by the people who entered them into the system. I guess we will never know because the district wouldn’t allow us to have an independent audit of the results without paying them to supervise our efforts. How is that independent?
l3wis