EDITORIAL: STC tax debated -- Discosure could force rollback election
Sometimes, you just can't match the reality you face in life.
My beloved president, Dr. Shirley Reed, was chastised for being unclear during an election. I'm not sure which elections have candidates that run spin-free, crystal-clear campaigns. Dr. Reed was not running for office, though. South Texas College was looking to pass a bond, along with the money to run the buildings to be constructed by bond monies.
The issue was 3.5 cents per $100 valuation, split into two separate elections. Both passed.
One year later, anti-tax activists are threatening a roll-back election, and the Monitor's editorial board chose to chastise Dr. Reed over the situation. The totals were given openly. The effects were discussed openly. Apparently, the amount of money it would cost a typical homeowner as not enough information. Rather, this had to be given as a percentage of increase for the editorial board to understand "how much" this would cost.
I've been impressed with the patience of my president in handling situations like this. I've been surprised at how this editorial board often tries to blame everybody surrounding them--
- as though it would have been too "investigative" to run a simple math equation, themselves
- or too "one-sided" to see through the spin coming toward them
- or, for that matter, to just EDIT.
The final statements of the McAllen Monitor's Sunday editorial read like this:
We’re disappointed that STC didn’t dot all its I’s and cross all it’s T’s, because that places STC and other taxing entities in the county in a vulnerable spot in the eyes of voters.
Whether you would dot a capital letter isn't going to be my biggest issue, but it could be. Comma use? Whatever. Italicization? Nah...
Did you read the TITLE of the editorial? There. Too ridiculous to analyze further. My feelings are fully discosed.
Point fingers. Just do it standing in front of a mirror.
