Why I Voted Against My School District’s Bond Issue
One of several mailers from supporters of the Temple bond issue. Opponents apparently sent out no mailers. (Scan by Lynn Woolley for WB Daily)
Government debt is staggering in the United States at every level. In case you haven’t noticed, the National Debt just passed the $38,000,000,000,000 mark. That’s trillion with a T.
That’s about $328,000 worth of red ink for every taxpayer.
In Texas, the State Legislature has tried to rein in local governments by putting a 3.5 percent limit on how much they can jack up taxes without triggering an election.
Some left-wing cities, like Austin, that are running a deficit, and don’t want to cut spending, hold a Tax Ratification Election to see if the folks will volunteer to pay more.
Governments at every level want to dig deeper into our pockets. Schools do it with bond issues. But this isn’t the time. The cost of food, housing, transportation – pretty much everything is up. That’s why I voted no.
AUDIO: Random Samplings of a Logical Mind (to come)
When politicians spend, the costs go up and taxpayers get soaked.
The most recent government shutdown has been about the Affordable Healthcare Act, known as Obamacare. The Democrats want to continue subsidies that were add-ons during the COVID-19 pandemic and were supposed to be temporary. Republicans would prefer to abolish Obamacare.
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The Republicans have the higher ground. When Obama nationalized student loans, tuition went way up. Now, socialists like Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want a single-payer system. But if the government runs healthcare, the profit motive is gone. That means quality will suffer and costs will go up due to the infusion of government money.
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There seems to be no way to convince governments at any level to spend within their means. They always clamor for more, and yet the high consumer costs we’re facing now are their fault. I’m not sure there is a way out at the national level. We are $38,000,000,000,000 in debt. Let that sink in.
Could there possibly be a worse time to hold school bond election?
TISD existing debt, Temple Daily Telegram 10.19.2025 (Photo by Lynn Woolley for WB Daily)
You have to wonder what they’re thinking. Ordinary people are pulling in their horns, watching their bank balance and trying to pay the skyrocketing costs of automobile and mortgage insurance.
Lots of families have stopped eating out.
Have you seen what a medium-priced restaurant costs for a family of four? And then, their portable credit card reader will ask you for a minimum 20 percent tip. It’s too much.
What an extraordinarily bad time to ask people to vote for a multi-million-dollar school bond. I work in Austin where the city council is hoping for a 20 percent tax hike.
I own property in Temple where the ISD is asking voters to approve $122.45 million in new school debt. Next door to Temple, Belton ISD wants a whopping $161.5 million in new school debt.
I asked the Temple Daily Telegram to publish some numbers, so we’ll know exactly where we stand – right now – before we add any more debt. I was hoping for detailed analyses from the pro-bond and the anti-bond sides. I didn’t get that, but at least one of my questions was answered, and that concerned outstanding debt from prior bond elections. In both Temple and Belton, those numbers are astounding.
In Temple, the amount of money already owed comes to $431,457,982 including interest. In Belton, the amount is even higher at $585,000,000, which I assume is rounded off. Remember that bond issues usually tell you the amount borrowed, but you have to add interest to that. Note in the article about the BISD, the district is adding about $161,500,000 which comes to $241,000,000 including interest. That would bring the tax debt for schools in Belton to over three quarters of a billion dollars.
BISD existing Debt, Temple Daily Telegram 10.24.25 (Photo by Lynn Woolley for WB Daily)
Also remember, school bonds should go for brick and mortar and not for maintenance and operations. We pay school taxes for that.
This is just not the time, so when is?
Both Temple and Belton are growing rapidly and will need additional schools if that continues. But I refuse to vote more debt until past debt is paid off. At that point, the taxpayers, in my opinion, need a few years of a tax break before being asked to pay again. The time, to me, is when all current debt is wiped out and there is a need due to increased population.
As for the City of Austin…
Austin’s TRE affects me as well because I rent an apartment there. I would prefer that the City Council – the worst of any city I’ve ever lived in – scrub the budget and eliminate left-wing frills. Trust me, there’ a lot to scrub, especially in the area of homeless spending where the city has farted away hundreds of millions with virtually nothing to show for it.
There one more thing that irritates me about school bond elections.
School bond issue propaganda is quick to tell you that if you’re over 65 years old, you have an exemption from the Tax Appraisal District, and your school taxes will not go up. Flyers proclaim:
“Won’t cost 65+ a single penny.”
That’s true.
What they are asking me to do is to vote a tax hike for my younger neighbors while I have no skin in the game. I will not do that because I believe that is unethical and immoral. If I support a school bond issue, I simply do not vote. I only vote if I oppose it and want to help keep taxes down for younger people who are struggling.
Temple, Texas school bond flyer. Note the “Ages 65 and older” blurb at bottom left. (Scan by Lynn Woolley for WB Daily)
I’m not always against school bond issues, however, there is a however.
The State of Texas has taken control of the Houston and Fort Worth ISDs because the schools are failing. The schools are not failing because they don’t have beautiful new schools or because they use portable buildings. They are failing largely because of two things.
First, public schools have become woke. They are consumed with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), the “1619 Project,” and LGBTQ propaganda.
Second, our schools are flooded with students that come from other countries, sometimes illegally, and cannot speak fluent English. This sets back the schools by years. But instead of English immersion, left-wing schools install bilingual and dual-language programs and left-wing parents love putting their kids through that.
California once tried English immersion in the Oceanside schools and test scores shot through the roof. So, California abandoned the idea and went back to multiple languages.
Fix those two little problems and you’ve likely fixed the schools. It would be a hell of a lot easier to support bond issues with schools that don’t constantly get a failing grade.
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In the meantime, we have to tell the politicians NO!
I have to tighten my belt due to the fact that government spends beyond its means, and causes inflation. I can’t stop the Congress from reckless spending. I vote for Republicans, but they still spend like there’s a pot of gold somewhere that I don’t know about. I have more of a say in local school bond elections.
When they still owe massive debt from the last time they asked for millions of dollars, my answer will be no. Yours should be too.
Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based author, broadcaster, and songwriter. Follow his podcast at https://www.PlanetLogic.us. Check out his author’s page at https://www.Amazon.com/author/lynnwoolley.
Order books direct from Lynn at https://PlanetLogicPress.Square.Site. Email Lynn at lwoolley9189@gmail.com.
You don’t need a bond issue to buy this <cheap> book. So order it now!
