Missed this from Wednesday.
In this fall’s elections, voters in the Spring Branch and North Forest Independent School Districts are being asked to approve annexation of their respective districts into the Houston Community College System.
We believe the larger region has a stake in these elections and strongly encourage voters in both areas to cast their ballots in favor of annexation. The annexation effort has been community-driven in both districts and was unanimously approved in both cases by the HCC Board of Trustees.
[…]
The benefits of inclusion in the community college system are a genuine bargain. The system’s tax rate of just over nine cents per $100 of assessed value is the lowest among area community colleges. Residents over age 65 receive an exemption of up to $100,000 in addition to the 10 percent homestead exemption.
In Spring Branch, the annexation effort has been targeted for defeat by antitax crusaders wishing to draw the line against additional taxes. That is a shortsighted crusade: Education that helps the Houston area train a skilled job force is precisely the wrong place to draw lines.
Shortsightedness about taxes has never been an obstacle for some folks. I hope the fact that the Chron has taken a position on this issue, which only affects a relatively small number of voters, means that they will offer endorsements in the Alief, Cy-Fair, and other area ISD elections. The same type of antitax crusaders are at work in those elections as well – as noted in my interview with Sarah Winkler, this is the case in Alief in part because of a successful HCC annexation election in a previous cycle – and that needs to be more widely known.
By the way, I was able to easily find this endorsement editorial because the Chron has, for the first time I can recall, maintained a list of all their endorsements on the index page for the opinion section. Like the trend towards getting endorsements done before the start of Early Voting, I hope it’s something they keep doing. Kudos to whoever made it happen.
The over taxation of our property is an issue. This is just another government money grab. The school is already over funded. When is enough enough? Pay as you go is a much better solution. Choice will require HCC to remain competitive. Competition is always good. This tax is only good for those who work for HCC. VOTE NO
Yes that’s right it’s the anti-tax crusaders (David) against the $750,000.00 election budget of HCC (Goliath). Who do you think will win this battle? Is this what we want to spend $750,000.00 of tax dollars to increasing the tax revenue of HCC by $12,000,000.00. Government running over the taxpayer AGAIN, and AGAIN, and AGAIN there will be no end as long as the tax-them-to-death crusaders are advocating the big government position.