Attention City of Keller Voters

If you live in the City of Keller, you need to be aware of the election on Nov. 8, 2011.  There is a special election in Keller for City Councilman place 5, and for an extension of a special street maintenance sales and use tax.  Everything you need to know about the election can be found at this website:

http://www.cityofkeller.com/index.aspx?page=1298

There are 5 people running for the unexpired Council Place 5, recently vacated by Councilman Mitch Homes.  Holmes has resigned after accepting a job in West Texas.

Candidates include:

• Jackie Black
• Doug Shaw
• Tom Buckman
• John Hoffmann,
• Marcus L. McCrary

On Aug. 16, the City Council voted to call a special election to reauthorize the Street Maintenance sales tax at one-fourth of one-percent to provide revenue for the maintenance and repair of municipal streets.  If approved, the tax is expected to generate approximately $1 million annually, dedicated for street maintenance and improvements.  The term of the tax is four years, after which another voter referendum would be required.

Also in the Nov. 8 2011 election, voters will be asked to approve 10 amendments to the Texas State Constitution.  Be sure to vote on Nov. 8!  (early voting begins on Oct. 24^th)

TEN TEXAS CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS TO BE VOTED ON IN NOVEMBER 2011

Please review these amendments and understand them before voting!

A Fellow Patriot in Wisconsin Asks For Our Prayers…

Best regards to all of you,

Mary on the front lines (as usual).

Keller ISD Uses Knife-To-Throat Tactics

By MQSullivan

For sheer brashness, Keller ISD gets high marks. For fiscal responsibility, they fail miserably. The Metroplex-area school district has put a knife to the throat of every classroom teacher (and therefore school-age child), demanding taxpayers pay up, or else.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial board, in supporting this thuggish behavior, notes that the district is demanding voters agree to a massive tax hike… or it “would eliminate 93 teaching jobs, 16 librarian positions and other staff. Fine arts programs would lose 34 positions…”

Of course, the FWST doesn’t mention that this is a school district spending more than $10,900 per child – with only $4,550 going to the classroom. Or that the superintendent makes a $225,000 annual salary. Or that they have their own natatorium. Or that they have a 1-to-1 ratio between teachers and non-teachers.

Nope, taxpayers need to fork over more cash or the teachers feel the axe and kids get left in an empty classroom.

This is just one more disgusting example of how the out-of-touch the edu-administration establishment really is. They clearly feel no sense of fiduciary responsibility to their bosses (the taxpayers), shame for their behavior to the teachers in their employ, or concern for the children in their care.

The over-spending ISD, and their cheerleaders at the FWST, lay the district’s fiscal problems at a legislature not giving them as much money as they demand. They inexplicably chastise Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for suggesting that there is adequate dollars available to pay for education.

Remember, 60 percent of the state’s General Revenues are now going toward education. And that public education saw an increase in spending at the same time the state budget is being cut $15 billion.

No, the Keller ISD leviathan demands more money.

Keller ISD – and many others like it – are clearly not interested in adequately funding education, despite their claims to the contrary. They regularly under-fund classrooms; how else does one explain that less than 40% of Keller ISD’s expenditures are devoted to the instructional expenses?

No, the bureaucrats in the administration buildings are interested in padding their pockets and pushing programs, while doing the bare minimum to educate Texas’ kids and reward our teachers.

There is simply never enough money for those who recklessly spend it, no matter how much fear and crisis they may try to manufacture.

Texans for Fiscal Responsibility

HEADS UP KELLER RESIDENTS!!

Keller ISD wants to raise property taxes by $0.13 and this proposition is currently on the ballot.  This will make Keller tie for having the highest rate in Texas!  Our Keller members believe they are Taxed Enough Already and feel that the school board should work on better spending of the money they already collect… before they give ‘em more!  So they have created a group called KISD Families For Fiscal Responsibility.  For more information on this issue and this group, please go to KISD Families for Fiscal Responsibility or on their facebook page.

Here’s more information from our Keller members:

Concurrent with the Keller City Council and Fort Worth Mayor run-off elections on June 18, voters in the Keller ISD boundaries will also see this Proposition on the ballot to ratify the Board of Trustees approval of a $.13 property tax increase:

Keller Independent School District Special Election

Proposition:   Approving the ad valorem tax rate of $1.67 per $100 valuation in Keller ISD for the current year, a rate that is $0.13 higher per $100 valuation than the school district rollback tax rate.

Keller Elections Tomorrow

Just a reminder that early voting for run-off elections starts Monday, June 6, and ends on Tuesday, June 14.  The actual election day is June 18.

Also, Keller will have a Tax Ratification Election on June 18, the same day as the run-off election. Running for Keller City Council, Place 6, are Doug Miller and Rick Mason. Here is Doug Miller’s Candidate Questionnaire that he filled out for our Candidate Fair. Rick Mason declined to fill one out or to participate in the Fair.  On his blog Doug Miller says this about his opponent:

We do know this, he stands for Public Employee Unions, as he is now being supported by the Fire Department Union PAC.  He has filed a financial report which can be found here, it doesn’t address any PAC money, but I’m sure that will come out later.

I will continue to do what I have done for four months.  Continue to knock on doors, talk to groups of citizens and get my message out here on the blog, through mailers and door hangers.  We will not be outworked.

You can read more about the election in this article:

By Adrian McCandless  Keller Citizen

amccandless@kellercitizen.com

KELLER — Candidates Rick Mason and Doug Miller agree on at least one thing — each think he’s the perfect fit for City Council Place 6, and both hope to be proven right after the June 18 runoff election.

“I think I am the more qualified candidate because the voters should be choosing someone who is best suited to run their $66 million businesses,” said Mason, 51.

Mason, a national sales manager, said he already runs a $50 million business with employees and challenges.

“I have a good education to back me up and I have plenty of applicable experience,” Mason said.

Miller, a former planning and zoning commissioner and a project manager for a construction company, said he has the experience.

“I am the candidate that has the knowledge and the background about what is going on in Keller to help it in the future,” Miller, 45, said.

Survey says… but polls don’t…

A local organization (Citizens for Education) made some phone calls to the top voters in Grapevine and Colleyville on Friday asking how they felt about the GCISD bond proposal.  Here are the questions and the responses.  They do not at all line up with the way people voted, which is unfortunate.  The bond passed with flying colors.  However, it was a significant step toward educating the voters, and next time if effort is made earlier on, we might have more success.

One use for the money borrowed will be to purchase 4,600 computers plus technology upgrades at a cost of 32 million dollars. There are no funds allotted for technical support or maintenance and we will be paying for these computers long after they are obsolete. Do you consider this purchase a necessity to properly educate our children?

For computers   75

Against computers   192

Unsure   25

Another use for the money borrowed will be to purchase artificial turf for the middle schools and sport upgrades at a cost of 10 million dollars. Do you consider these luxury, noneducational expenditures the best use of our education dollars?

For   48

Against   223

Unsure   13

Servicing bonds takes money from the general fund which is used to pay teachers’ salaries.  Were you aware that, by law, bond money cannot be used for teacher’s salaries and that voting NO on the bond will not hurt teachers salaries?

Aware   100

Not Aware   124

Unsure   50

GCISD Bond Proposal – It’s OK to say no!

GCISD Voters and Taxpayers!

There is a $124,000,000 bond proposal on the ballot for the GCISD school district!

Did you know…

This bond is in addition to the GCISD’s annual operating budget of $140,000,000 which is collected from our property taxes?

This bond incurs INTEREST like a mortgage?

That it is illegal to use bond funding to pay teacher salaries – if you oppose the bond proposal, you will NOT be firing teachers?

That the GCISD asks for more money in the form of a bond package (and voters approve it) roughly every five years?

Did you know…

That these types of items (plus MANY, MANY MORE) are included in this bond package:

$5,300,000 – artificial turf for (3) Middle School football fields

$   938,000 –  track renovations for (4) Middle Schools (one of which is a field not used for meets but only for practice)

$   247,000 – canopy and lighting for batting cages at High School

$    192,000 – practice field renovation at Middle School

$     89,000 – expansion of coach’s shower at High School field house

$     38,210 – additional shower for game officials at High School field house

$   424,130 – lockers, concrete benches, and carpet to make space more usable at High School field house.

$     36,852 – replacement of manual paper cutter with programmable paper cutter

$2,040,733 – Replacement and upgrade to analog video network with digital video network

$5,664,018 – Replacement of 4,600 computers over 5 year period to include desktops, laptops and Netbooks

Do these luxury items that our dollars are buying help our children get a better education?

Do these “extras” focus on our teachers and our children?

If your answer is NO, please send a message to our school district that we want more focus on the classroom!

Vote NO on the GCISD Bond Proposal on May 14^th!!

Click here to print a flyer you can share with your neighbors.

Kathleen Thompson is NOT a Conservative!

Grapevine Voters, meet your candidate!  Kathleen Thompson is running for Grapevine City Council.  She is former President of Mid-Cities Democrats.  She is current co-chair of Drinking Liberally (a liberal group opposed to the tea party).  The Sarah Palin picture below is taken from Kathleen’s flickr account (which she hid from public view after we first alerted our members to it).

Kathleen has done a lot of bragging about her community involvement, but she’s never shared the above details about her liberal leadership.  We thought you deserve to know!

Many of Kathleen’s mailers and conversations have centered around how fiscally conservative she is.  Just remember that what’s more important than a candidate’s words is a candidate’s actions.  None of Kathleen’s actions seem to support tea party principles of fiscal responsibility and limited govt.    Be an educated voter!

Time to vote!

It’s time to vote!  Early voting for municipal elections goes from May 2 through  May 10.  During early voting, you can vote at ANY polling location in Tarrant County.  Please click here to find all the information you need to vote, including times, dates, locations, and sample ballots.  Election Day is May 14, at which time you can ONLY vote at your specific polling location.

Click  for a  list of picks from various NETTP leaders.  These are not endorsements from NETTP as an organization, but I asked different individuals in various cities of NE Tarrant if they’d share who they are voting for, and these are those results.