Five Harris County school districts say THIS IS A TAX INCREASE on the November 3 ballot. One of them puts the increase at negative $20.30.

Five Harris County school districts have tax rate ratification elections on the November 3 ballot, and all five carry the same line in bold capitals: THIS IS A TAX INCREASE. The amount each ballot then names ranges from $102,350,532 down to negative $20.30.

Why it matters

A voter approval tax rate election is the one place a school district has to ask permission before it collects more. State law makes the district print the warning, then print the number. The warning is identical on all five. The number is not, and it is the only part that tells a homeowner what the vote does to the bill. Early voting starts October 19.

By the numbers

From the sample ballot the Harris County Clerk has posted for the November 3 election, read on October 4. Each of these five propositions is headed THIS IS A TAX INCREASE.

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Proposition A. Rate of $1.1569. An increase of 23 percent in maintenance and operations tax revenue, an additional $102,350,532.
Channelview ISD, Proposition A. Rate of $0.9611 per $100 valuation. An increase of 5.65 percent, an additional $1,765,977.
La Porte ISD, Proposition A. Rate of $1.0673. An increase of 0.12 percent, an additional $136,630.28.
Spring ISD, Proposition A. Rate of $1.1569. An increase of 0 percent, an additional $0.
Huffman ISD, Proposition A. Rate of $1.0637. An increase of 4.88 percent, and the figure printed in the same sentence is an additional $ -20.30.

The bond questions on the same ballot are headed THIS IS A PROPERTY TAX INCREASE and are separate from the five above. Cypress-Fairbanks Propositions B through E ask for $1,299,520,000, $256,075,000, $60,800,000 and $20,125,000, which is $1,636,520,000 from one district by our addition. Channelview asks $106,825,000, $19,080,000, $8,815,000 and $30,420,000. Crosby asks $98,280,000 and $110,000,000.

What the coverage buried

The Huffman figure is the one to look at. A 4.88 percent increase in a district’s maintenance and operations revenue is real money. Negative $20.30 is not 4.88 percent of anything a school district collects. Both figures sit in the same sentence, and the Spanish column prints the same number, so this is not a translation slip.

This desk is not asserting which figure is right. We read the document and we are reporting what it says. A voter in Huffman who reads the whole proposition is given two answers and no way to choose between them, and no outlet we could find has printed the negative figure at all.

Spring ISD is the quieter version. Its proposition carries the tax increase warning and then reports the increase as zero percent and zero dollars. That is internally consistent, and it is likely the result of state compression and taxable value changes rather than anything the district chose. It is still a ballot that warns about an increase and documents none.

The other side

The districts did not write the warning. The all caps line is required by state law on every voter approval tax rate election, whatever the arithmetic underneath it, and a district cannot soften it or leave it off. Cypress-Fairbanks, which is asking for the largest amount by a wide margin, prints its 23 percent and its $102,350,532 plainly. On the central complaint, that these ballots bury what they cost, the districts have a real answer: the number is there, in the same paragraph, as the statute requires.

That answer holds for four of the five. It does not explain Huffman.

What to watch

Whether Huffman ISD or the Harris County Clerk corrects or explains the negative $20.30 before early voting opens.
October 19 through October 30, early voting.
October 23, the deadline to apply for a mail ballot.

Bottom line

Five districts, one warning label, and consequences running from $102 million to less than nothing. The label is state law and the districts are following it. The number beside it is the one that matters, and in one of the five it does not make sense.

Sources

Editorial