Editor:

Why would the BISD school board even think of endorsing a plan to bring Austin Community College into the school district? Another taxing entity, such as ACC, would be more detrimental to than supportive of our school district.
Another taxing district will only compete against BISD for tax dollars. In the past, when BISD needed additional money, it took two, three, or four bond elections before success occurred. By the time each bond did pass, the district was in so much distress it took several years longer to repair the damage. According to the minutes of the Jan. 20, 2009 BISD board meeting, the current problems the district is faced with is because it took four elections before a bond was finally approved.
Supporters for an ACC campus in the BISD district (”so we can have a campus like Austin or Round Rock”) are forgetting we do not have the tax base those communities have.
Whether we like it or not, taxing districts compete against each another for the limited revenue available and each tax increase is the choice of the taxpayers. ACC’s current tax rate increased from 5 cents to 9 in 2003. At any time, another election could be held to increase this amount to as high at 14 cents per $100. Should an election be called, Bastrop ’s voice in the matter is minimal compared to the entire ACC district. With the additional ACC tax, Bastrop taxpayers will be even more reluctant to pass the next BISD bond when (yes, when) it is proposed.
Secondly, Bastrop has been working to attract new businesses into the area. We especially need production companies that will generate new sources of tax relief and provide opportunity for skilled employment that retailing does not provide. We want our students to become more skilled, yet, if they do become more skilled there is nothing in our area to keep them here once they are educated.
If the BISD taxing district has the additional ACC tax the rest of Bastrop County doesn’t have, Bastrop and the BISD tax districts would automatically become less attractive for future growth. After all, what company would choose to relocate within the BISD taxing district especially when ACC offers no exemptions to businesses? It is only logical that further growth in the BISD area would be stymied and any business considering a move into the county would more likely choose Smithville, Elgin or McDade areas to escape this additional tax. Maybe that is the real reason Smithville is refusing to be part of the ACC annexation plan.
On the surface, ACC in Bastrop seems beneficial, but the deeper one searches, the more it grows into a liability we cannot afford to have. Let’s bring in an opportunity for higher education, but let’s bring in one that will generate income and growth. Other higher educational institutions, that are not tax supported, have expressed interest in our county; let’s give them an opportunity to tell what they will provide.

Jim Clark
Bastrop