Quasi-Republican wins DEMOCRAT Travis County District Court primary (over hack incumbent)

"You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous."
Deuteronomy 16:19

This is pretty funny:

There will be at least four new district judges in Travis County after final results of the 2020 primary election came in early on March 4.

....

In the 353rd district court, Madeleine Connor defeated Tim Sulak, the incumbent serving in that position since 2011 in a closely contested race, winning by fewer than 2,000 votes. Connor received 50.6% of the vote to Sulak's 49.5%.

Sulak built an early voting lead of more than 6,000 votes in early voting, but Connor's election day margin of 48,514 votes to Sulak's 37,652 was enough to give her a narrow victory.

Both Wahlberg and Sulak were endorsed by a majority of respondents to the Austin Bar Association and Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association preference poll.

If you've been around awhile, you'll remember Madeline Connor. She ran for the Third Court of Appeals as a Republican in 2012. She lost to Scott Field, who was subsequently a victim of the Democrat wave in 2018.

We're not really sure what to say.  Connor seems to have...issues.  The Statesman did a write up of her and her campaign about a month ago.

Reading the Statesman article, it seems that Connor has voted in both parties primaries.  And that she's run for office multiple times in each party.  There's nothing necessarily wrong with that.  Although we remember Connor running around in 2012 and telling anyone who would listen that she was Ms. Tea Party.  She now claims that judicial positions should be "non-partisan."  At a minimum, that suggests a certain lack of convictions.  Telling people whatever they want to hear in order to obtain elected office doesn't exactly suggest a strong judicial temperament.

On the other hand Tim Sulak, the incumbent, is a hack.  We have a very specific reason from 2013 why we don't like him.  So we're happy to see him lose.

It's impossible to know why this happened.  Although it's a Democrat primary, and the female candidate defeated the male incumbent.  Identity politics is probably a good guess.  But it's just a guess.

Bottom Line: Pretty funny.

TPPF Lawsuit Against #atxcouncil's "Sick Leave" entitlement has first hearing

"Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?"
Matthew 20:15

This afternoon, we attended the first hearing for the TPPF lawsuit against the City of Austin's so-called "sick leave" entitlement; two takeaways stand out.

The first is that Tim Sulak is the presiding judge.  Longer term readers will remember him from the 2013 Austin ISD bond lawsuit.  We stand by everything we said at the time and suggest his presence is all you need to know.

The second is that the City's strategy is going to be chubbing and misdirection.  With the ordinance scheduled to go into effect on October 1st, the city doesn't want to give an appeals court a chance to issue a temporary injunction.  So stall, stall, stall....

Today's hearing was supposed to cover the plaintiff's request for an injunction on the ordinance.  That didn't stop the city from wasting an hour trying to get other issues considered in front of the injunction.  During this discussion, the city's attorney claimed that businesses aren't suffering harm because the ordinance hasn't gone into effect yet.  That level of arrogance and ignorance was the hallmark of the city's performance.

Ellen Troxclair was the first plaintiff's witness for the injunction.  Troxclair explained the lack of Austin-specific data accessible to council during it's deliberation.  She also pointed out that council didn't have the final ordinance language available until the day of adoption.  On cross-examination, the city's attorney attempted to gaslight Troxclair by asking her a bunch of irrelevant questions about her opinion of sick leave as an employee benefit.

The second plaintiff witness was Douglas Rigdon, who runs the Strickland Christian School in South Austin.  The Strickland school is one of the plaintiffs in the suit.  Strickland is significantly less expensive than the average private school (max tuition = $5kish).  Strickland's low tuition business model would fall apart if the city's ordinance were to go into effect.  Ridden suggested Strickland might have to eliminate teacher bonuses, or lower cash salaries for teachers, to comply.  Higher tuition is given.  The city's attorneys responded by belittling Rigdon's business model, belittling tuition increases, and suggesting Strickland borrow money to cover the costs of the ordinance.

Bottom Line: We'll get into the meat of the legal arguments tomorrow, but a very revealing day today.

Austin ISD facilities plan, 'new' Travis County Courthouse, proves value of defeating bonds....

"So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God."
Romans 14:12

About a month ago, we had some modestly positive comments to make about Austin ISD's new facilities plan; they recently announced the next step in the process:

We need your input as we continue to plan for our #AISDFuture with the Facility Master Plan (FMP). During these meetings, AISD will present the Facilities and Bond Planning Advisory Committee’s (FABPAC) FMP update, including updates on preliminary options, and receive feedback from the public. Each meeting will focus on a different vertical team, though anyone can attend any meeting.

Email us: future@austinisd.org
Call direct: 512-414-9595
Upcoming Meeting Locations:
* January 24 McCallum HS – Cafeteria, (6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.) | Vertical Teams: McCallum & Special Campuses
* January 25 Crockett HS – Cafeteria, (6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.) | Vertical Teams:Akins & Crockett
* January 26 Garcia YMLA – Cafeteria, (6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.) | Vertical Teams: LBJ & Reagan
* January 31 Martin MS - Cafeteria, (6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.) | Vertical Teams: Eastside Memorial & Travis
* February 1 Burnet MS - Cafeteria, (6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.) | Vertical Teams: Anderson & Lanier
* February 2 Gorzycki MS - Cafeteria, (6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.) | Vertical Teams: Austin & Bowie

More information online at www.AISDFuture.com

During Community Engagement Series #3, AISD will present the FABPAC's FMP update, including updates on preliminary options, and receive feedback from the public. The FABPAC will review and use public input as they continue to work with consultants to refine the FMP draft and eventually formulate recommendations to modernize our district over the next 20-25 years.

But while we're on the subject of fallout from the bonds we've helped defeat over the years, check out the latest on the Travis County Courthouse front:

The federal government has approved Travis County’s application to utilize the old U.S. courthouse for its probate court offices.

Travis County commissioners were handed the deed to 200 W. 8th Street on Thursday morning. The courthouse – built in 1936 – has been vacant since the new federal courthouse on West 5th opened in 2012. The U.S. General Services Administration declared the building surplus, and the county applied to take ownership of the property.

....

Officials have been looking for remedies to the overcrowding at the Heman Marion Sweatt Courthouse since voters in 2015 narrowly rejected a $287 million bond that would have paid for a new civil courthouse. The county said they will need to renovate and restore the building before they will occupy it in 2020.

These solutions might not be perfect, but they're both light years better than what the respective governmental entities were proposing in 2013 and 2015.

Indeed, as much as it kills us to admit this, Mayor Adler's "corridor" bond that passed last year was (for all its flaws) still substantially less terrible than the rail bond that was defeated in 2014.

Bottom Line: It's amazing how often Plan B costs less while doing a better job accomplishing the task the governmental entity in question says they want to accomplish.

Austin ISD actually does something (modestly) encouraging....

"As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."
1 Peter 4:10

It's not a secret that we've been extraordinarily critical of Austin ISD's finances over the years, but this is a step in the right direction:

The Austin school district on Wednesday afternoon unveiled the 40 bids and proposals for 10 of its properties, including the district’s headquarters just west of downtown.

Some of the proposals are intended to create affordable housing in Austin. The city of Austin, Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas and several well-known developers and nonprofits sought the properties, which included vacant land as well as such buildings as the downtown Millett Opera House (home of the Austin Club) and the Baker Center administration building in Hyde Park.

While the dollar amounts for the bids were released publicly, the details of the proposals weren’t disclosed.

 A few thoughts:

• The housing numbers are probably too small to make a major difference...but for a city that needs to construct 150,000 units of new housing over the next decade, every little bit helps.

• We've seen the suggestion made online that the headquarters on West 6th st should be converted into high rise condos; we'd fully support such a decision, but that probably makes far too much sense to ever be considered by this city.

• Shedding some of their incredibly valuable real estate is the absolute bare minimum Austin ISD needs to do to get their finances in order.

We remain in wait and see mode, but nevertheless we encourage more thinking along these lines by the district:

The bids come amid the district’s efforts to create a 20-year facility master plan, which could call for building six new schools and closing up to 10 aging campuses in poor condition, in preparation for the next bond package, which could come as early as November. District leaders have said they must demonstrate efficiency with their surplus properties before asking voters to approve new projects.

Read the whole thing here.

Phony, anti-Zimmerman, "Outrage": The latest fallout....

"For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there."
James 3:16

At last Thursday's council meeting, Don Zimmerman made a completely reasonable comment.  That didn't stop the phony outrage machine.  The Travis County Democrat politburo even used it to fundraise!!!

That being said, there were a couple of interesting developments over the weekend.

First, Don's office released a video comparing his remarks last Thursday to other remarks he's made previously that generated no such reaction:



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That being said, we think THIS is the most interesting reaction:

You can learn more about Celia Israel and the issue in question here.

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Finally, one personal note: We didn't think about it until we started writing this post, but we actually first heard Don say something along these lines back in 2013 during the school bond campaign.

Yet ANOTHER Infuriating Budget from Austin ISD....

"There is desirable treasure,
And oil in the dwelling of the wise,
But a foolish man squanders it."
Proverbs 21:20

We can't even, from the Austin Monitor:

Trustees with the Austin Independent School District approved a $1.3 billion operating budget for the upcoming 2016-2017 school year in an 8-0-1 vote Monday night, with District 1 Trustee Edmund Gordon abstaining. It is the largest budget AISD has ever considered, yet board members continued to call out the state’s public education system for its unfairness.

....

The district approved approximately $1.2 billion in general fund expenditures, which is a $162.7 million increase compared to last year’s general fund revenue. The largest voluntary budget increase stems from a 4 percent raise for all full- and part-time employees, which equates to about a $20 million spending increase.

....

Other notable expenditures included AISD’s decision to raise the minimum wage of its employees to $13 per hour — an additional $1.2 million expenditure — and put in place a new teacher compensation program. The new program, Professional Pathways for Teacher Compensation, allows teachers to qualify for salary increases through continual education and performance-based measures, among other means. Board members put aside an additional $3 million for the program.

[Author's Note: Emphasis added.]

Keep in mind, this is in a district where enrollment has now declined four years in a row.

That being said, for those of us who successfully opposed their bond three years ago, there was this one modest piece of good news:

Due to debt-related savings, AISD is lowering its tax rate by 1 cent this year, to $1.19 per $100 of assessed property value.

Read the whole thing here.

Big Cities provoke Conservative BACKLASH across Texas!!!

"There are many plans in a man’s heart,
Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand."
Proverbs 19:21

Yesterday, the Dallas City Council passed a bathroom ordinance similar to the one voters in Houston JUST shot down.  This adds Dallas to the list of urban governments that have recently made myopic decisions.  This will have long-term consequences that are not yet understood.

It's often noted that, while the rural and suburban areas are OVERWHELMINGLY red, urban areas in Texas lean towards blue.  Since 2013, however, local governments in Texas' cities have overreached in ways that undermine their long-term viability.  The issues vary, but they point in the same direction.

Consider the following:

• Austin -- In 2013, the school bond failed.  In 2014, the rail bond failed.  In 2015, the courthouse bond failed.
  
  Austin has been in a property tax REVOLT for the past two years.  That revolt has already killed the three bonds listed above and put Don Zimmerman and Ellen Troxclair on the Austin City Council.  Conservatives didn't create the climate, but it's easy to exploit.  Furthermore, the status quo crowd shows no sign of heeding this lesson.  Unless incumbent elected officials change course next year (which they won't), Austin's tax revolt will grow DRAMATICALLY in 2016.
  
  Property Taxes.  Property Taxes.  Property Taxes.  Property Taxes.  Property Taxes.  Property Taxes.  Property Taxes.

• Dallas -- Dallas had been lagging, but yesterday's city council vote is likely to produce the same backlash we saw in Houston.

• Houston -- The bathroom ordinance got the most press, but Houston's fiscal CRISIS deserves equal billing.  Houston now has more debt than Detroit.  Those issues combined to produce a conservative tsunami on election night that knocked out an alleged 'rising star' of the Texas Democrat party.
  
  Bill King, the conservative candidate likely to win Houston's mayoral runoff, has pledged to fix the pension situation.  Structural fiscal reforms will permanently reduce the footprint of municipal government.  That's terrible news for statists and their rent-seeking enablers.
  
  The soon-to-be third largest city in the U.S. is about to elect a Scott Walker-style reformer as mayor and radical homosexual activists have only themselves to blame.

• San Antonio -- During Julian Castro's final term, voters belatedly woke up.  In 2014, after Obama gave Castro a face-saving exit, the council elevated a Castro antagonist to Mayor.  In 2015, Ivy Taylor won a full term thanks to conservatives.
  
  Furthermore, turnout in the 2015 election was twice the 2013 total.
  
  Now the City of San Antonio is playing with fire over annexation; woe unto them if they're stupid enough to move forward.

Bottom Line: Across Texas, big city governments have provoked grassroots rebellions.  While the triggering issues vary, the underlying dynamics are identical.  This will have long term consequences no one has considered.

"Strange" Bedfellows: Robert Thomas and Austin ISD

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves..."
Matthew 7:15

Robert Thomas is running for Austin City Council on a platform of alleged fiscal conservatism.  Unfortunately, his record indicates an unsettling closeness with the government school bureaucracies, most notably Austin ISD.  He seems to have a soft spot for school district debt.

In 2013, while this website was working to defeat the Austin ISD bond, Robert Thomas made the following comment:

Robert Thomas is on the Community Bond Oversight Committee and is a board member for the Northwest Austin Civic Association. Speaking as a Northwest Austin resident and not a representative of either organization, he said he wants what is best for the community.

“I’m very supportive of the bonds, but I am unsure how I will vote on each individual proposition,” Thomas said.

He said many residents would like to see the district address overcrowding in Northwest Austin schools such as Murchison Middle School and Anderson High School. That might persuade them to vote for Proposition 2, which includes eliminating portable classrooms and building new infrastructure on existing campuses to aid with overcrowding.

 But it gets better, from his website:

Which begs the real question: How does an alleged 'fiscal conservative' get a seat on the bond 'oversight' committee and get endorsed by the outgoing President of the Board of Trustees?!?

Bottom Line: A City Council candidate who supported the largest bond initiative in Austin ISD history and enjoys the support of the local education establishment can call himself many things; a fiscal conservative ain't one of 'em.

Vote Bill Worsham!!!

Austin ISD caves to Union intimidation on Wage Rates

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

Sigh, of course they did:

In a split vote at its June 16 meeting, Austin ISD’s board of trustees adopted the federal Davis-Bacon prevailing wage schedule as the schedule AISD uses to pay construction workers, and the board pledged to conduct an additional study to determine a living wage for workers.

Pipe fitters, laborers and representatives from Austin Interfaith and AISD employees union Education Austin urged the board to adopt Davis-Bacon and stop using what they called an outdated wage rate schedule, while others called Davis-Bacon “flawed” and asked the board to postpone the vote.

....

Initial work is moving forward on a few Austin ISD bond projects approved by voters in 2013. The district’s board of trustees decided to discuss potentially revising the wage rate structure after a group of local citizens at its April 28 meeting asked the district to halt work on bond projects until construction workers are being paid fair wages.

Davis-Bacon wage rates are based on a federal law requiring payment of prevailing wage rates for laborers.

At the June 16 meeting, trustee Tamala Barksdale made a motion to adopt Davis-Bacon rates, while trustee Ann Teich added the living wage floor amendment. The vote was 5–4, with trustees Cheryl Bradley, Lori Moya, Robert Schneider and board President Vincent Torres opposed.

Schneider said he is concerned about whether or not the district will be able to afford a wage increase coupled with paying for voter-approved 2013 bond projects in a timely manner.

Torres said he sees problems with Davis-Bacon prevailing wage determinations, including survey response errors and reliance on "inappropriately small and unrepresentative data sets."

While we're on the topic, learn more about the racist origins of Davis-Bacon here; money quote:

The Act was passed in order to prevent non-unionized black and immigrant laborers from competing with unionized white workers. The discriminatory effects continue, as even today minorities tend to be vastly under-represented in highly unionized skilled trades, and over- represented in the pool of unskilled workers.

Travis County Taxpayers Union Moneybomb Today; Matching grant for first $2000 raised!!!

Well, today is the day!

The money bomb for the Austin ISD lawsuit we've discussed previously is going on right now.  In addition, the Travis County Taxpayers Union announced this morning that we've received a matching grant for the first $2000 raised.  That means that for every dollar YOU donate, TCTU will receive two.

If successful, this lawsuit will save Austin taxpayers half a Billion dollars; in addition, if this case goes to the Texas Supreme Court, it could establish a precedent that would restrain financial shenanigans from Taxing entities across the state of Texas.

As we wrote in June:

Cahnman's Musings has never asked readers for money before, but this is a special circumstance where your small contribution could make an outsized impact

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Please donate here.

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Please share this information on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Judge Tim Sulak Demands $15 Million Taxpayer Ransom

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."
Eighth Amendment, United States Constitution

Cahnman's Musings spent the morning at the 353rd District Court of Travis County, Judge Tim Sulak presiding.  We were there to observe the Travis County Taxpayers Union's (TCTU) lawsuit against Austin Independent School district (AISD) we've discussed previously.  To quote Wendy Davis, we witnessed a raw abuse of power.

Judge Sulak ruled in favor of the district.  That wasn't surprising.  The outrageous part was the shackles Judge Sulak put on a potential appeal.

Judge Sulak ruled TCTU must post a $15 million bond ($15,000,000) to protect the district before an appeal could proceed.  Obviously, TCTU doesn't have that kind of money.  In other words, a Democrat judge made it prohibitively expensive for a citizens group to petition their government for redress of grievances.

On one level, this isn't surprising.  Judge Sulak and AISD are part of the Travis County's progressive mafia (Sidenote: This is the same progressive mafia that is protecting Rosemary Lehmberg).  On the other hand, demanding a fifteen million dollar ransom to allow a citizens lawsuit against a governmental entity to continue is (to our knowledge) unprecedented.

In announcing his ruling, Judge Sulak admitted that, even if he disagreed with it, TCTU made a reasonable case against the district.  Judge Sulak's ruling was designed to protect AISD from having the case heard in front of judges who aren't in the pocket of big education.  This isn't over....

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Readers can contact Judge Sulak via his campaign Facebook page.

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Update: More from Fox 7 Austin:

URGENT: Update on the Austin School Bond Lawsuit

Shortly before last month's bond election Travis County Taxpayers Union sued the district over illegal ballot language.  The short version of the lawsuit is that the District lied about the magnitude of potential tax increases.  Last week, the Austin-American Statesman reported that the lawsuit may yet neuter the two bonds that passed; money quote:

The district hopes to hire architects as early as this fall to get project planning underway, but the taxpayer group’s lawsuit could prevent the district from issuing the bonds. The district needs approval from the Attorney General’s office, which typically doesn’t give the green light until any legal challenges of the bonds have been resolved, according to the petition filed by the district.

 Last night, we spoke with Don Zimmerman, Founder and Treasurer of TCTU.  Don thinks there's a respectable chance this lawsuit could prevail.  If it does, it would prevent the district from ever issuing the bonds that passed.

Right now, TCTU needs to raise a little bit of money to move the suit forward.  We're not talking large sums, 2 to 5 grand would go a long way.  Whatever small amount you contribute could help save taxpayer half a Billion dollars.

Cahnman's Musings has never asked readers for money before, but this is a special circumstance where your small contribution could make an outsized impact; donate here.

Can Obama's Organizing Army Take Texas?!?

New information on Battleground Texas from the American Prospect

• Why Democrats should be extremely cautious:

 Republicans have continued to gain congressional and legislative seats over the past decade, even as Texas’s Latino population has swelled....Bird and Brown cite Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada as models for turning out Latinos. But none of those states has more than 516,000 Latino citizens total—which is fewer than the number of Latino citizens in Houston’s Harris County alone.

•  Then, we get into nuts and bolts:

The initial focus will be to create a massive network of Democratic organizers and volunteers across the state....A full-scale plan for “getting that started” won’t be rolled out until this summer. But Jeremy Bird offers a few more details. In the next couple of election cycles, Battleground Texas will target “battleground zones”—races that organizers believe could either be winnable or could help Democrats build infrastructure by training new candidates and registering voters. A battleground zone could be a city council race with a promising young Latino candidate in Waco or a state House race in a heavily minority district in Houston. The idea is to seize every viable opportunity to build new Democratic networks around the state, creating new voters along the way.

•  Recent examples of when this sort of thing has worked(*):

The leaders of Battleground Texas say there’s reason for optimism—partly because there is some recent history of grassroots politics working in Texas. During the 2010 midterm elections, Austin Democratic Party Chair Andy Brown selected 21 largely black and Latino precincts where turnout had traditionally been low and pledged to run the type of hardcore turnout campaigns usually reserved for the wealthier, whiter parts of town. With a paid field staff organizing volunteers, the Travis County Democrats knocked on every registered voter’s door in those precincts two or three times and called each one at least twice. The effort paid off: Although 2010 was the worst year in history for Texas Democrats, 18 percent more ballots were cast in Travis County and the number of straight-ticket Democratic voters went up 54 percent. “There was nothing fancy about it,” Brown says. “It was a really well-run field program.”

A similar strategy has also worked wonders in Dallas. In 2006, Democrats in Texas’s oldest Republican stronghold bucked convention by spending as much on phone-banking and door-to-door campaigning as on media ads and mailers. The results were stunning: Democrats swept all 47 local offices, including 40 judgeships that had previously belonged to Republicans.

 (Author's Note: We were lived in Travis County during the 2010 election and it was not clean.)

• The Bottom Line for both parties:

If Democrats can galvanize Houston’s nonvoters, they will [Author's Note: could] be well on their way to turning Texas blue. But all those years of ignoring minorities will make it a formidable task. 

 The whole article is worth a read, but it doesn't change anything.  Conservatives across the state of Texas need to build up from the local level.  And we've already had some successes.

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Update (6/11/2013): Agendawise calls this a bluff.

The Next Step: #AuditAISD

"I won." 
President Barack Obama
January 23, 2009

Several people have written to ask what comes next following conservatives' upset victory over Austin's progressive establishment Saturday night.  That the pro-bond campaign outspent us 45:1 and could only manage a draw illustrates voters unease with the district's stewardship of the people's money.  The citizens of Austin have spoken, and they gave a clear mandate to get to the bottom of the district's finances.

#AuditAISD.

Austin Independent School District needs a financial proctology exam.  This election raised a lot of questions about the district's finances.  It's now time for answers.

#AuditAISD

From questions about administrative bloat, to basic maintenance, to the cozy relationship between the district and special interest cronies, to countless others, the time has come to answer citizens' questions.  Obviously, the district lacks the credibility to examine its own finances.  An independent audit, with subpoena power, is the appropriate next step.

#AuditAISD

Once Austinites get to the bottom of the district's finances, then we can consider major policy changes.  For now, however, discussing its premature.  We need more information.  Let's get it.  #AUDITAISD.

Conservatives win; educarats lose; Austin Children bat .500 (AISD Audit needed)

It looks like taxpayers went 2 for 4 in Austin's bond election.

We'll take it.

When the incumbent outspends you 45:1 and you battle them to a draw, you don't argue.

Austin Bond Result: We Need Your Prayers

Folks have written in asking how the bond election went.

We need prayers.

I hope this helps.

VOTE TODAY: AGAINST AISD Bond Props 1 - 4

Today is the big day; vote against all four Austin ISD bonds:



Read our endorsement AGAINST the bonds here.

Find your polling place here.

Turnout Up for AISD Props. 1 - 4

According to the Burnt Orange Report, 16,551 people voted in all elections across Travis County during early voting.

In 2010, by contrast, the May AISD trustee election saw fewer than 10,000 people show up.

Caution is in order, because the sixteen thousand number is for Travis County as a whole (not just AISD), but turnout is clearly up.

Election Day voting locations can be found here.

Let's slow this process down; vote AGAINST AISD props. 1 - 4.

AFP-Texas: The Ugly Numbers on AISD debt and spending

Americans for Prosperity -- Texas breaks down the numbers on the AISD bond election:

Teachers comprise only 52% of the ISD staff

And only 49% of the ISD revenue is spent on instruction

And the Superintendent – as of TEA’s last listing – is making base salary of over $285,000

AISD debt is currently just over $1.1 billion

• Approximately $751 million in principal and
• $372 million in interest

AISD student enrollment has grown 8.9% at under 1% a year over the past 10 years according to TEA:

• In 2001, enrollment was 77,816;
• In 2011, enrollment was 85,273

Yet spending almost doubled – 71.12% increaseFrom $547 million to $936 million
And the ISD fund balance grew an astounding 117.647% in 10 years.

• $68 million in 2001 to $148 million in 2001-10

The bond package proposed would more than double AISD debt.
Let’s remember the current principal is $750.5 million; This bond package is for over $892 million.

Read more: http://americansforprosperity.org/texas/legislativealerts/aisd-bond-election-loving-our-kids-to-debt/#ixzz2SZ8bxieq

 This is lot of debt to burden ourselves and our children with over the next thirty years.  A low turnout May election that maximizes the special interest vote is not an appropriate forum.  Let's slow this process down;  Vote AGAINST AISD Bonds 1 - 4.

STOP THE PRESSES: Austin-American Statesman comes out AGAINST AISD Props. 1-4

Oh. My. Gosh.

Vote for Mia's future; say 'no' to the rushed bond package; money quote:

The district’s board and administration is asking for permission to borrow $892 million — the largest in the district’s 132-year history. The four bond propositions on the ballot are the results of many hours of hard work by the district’s volunteer bond advisory committee and by district staff. And while we appreciate the commitment of time and effort, the American-Statesman cannot recommend passage of any of the four items presented to district voters.

The newspaper is a strong supporter of public education, and that support makes this decision difficult. But we cannot in good conscience recommend approval of a package that is riddled with questionable cost estimates and expenditures and rushed for inclusion on the May ballot.

....

Had the propositions not been structured to bundle needed projects with costly wishful thinking, voters could have separated mere want from true need. Bundling the projects was a political choice — not an academic one. The same goes for ignoring or overlooking the potential for full use of existing buildings before rushing to build new ones.

Trustees seek permission to build new schools when vacancies exist at facilities — mostly east of the interstate.

....

Waiting for a spot on the November ballot after a more thorough vetting of the items would have made the bond requests more affordable as well as supportable.

To reiterate, it is a departure for the American-Statesman not to support a school bond issue, and we did not reach this decision easily.

Consider that Mia, the cute little girl on the flyer, will grow up and be into her 30s paying back millions in unnecessary debt the bond propositions would impose on her.

 Cahnman's Musings is pleasantly shocked by this development, but we'll take it.

Let's slow this process down; vote AGAINST AISD Props. 1-4.

Early voting runs through tomorrow, find early voting locations here.

Election day proper is Saturday, May 11th, find election day polling locations here.