JISD voters pass rollback tax election
By GEORGIA PURDY Newsboy Correspondent

The rollback election, held Nov. 6, passed 216- 166, allowing Jasper Independent School District to set the tax rate at $1.34 per $100 property valuation. The 13 cents above the state rate will allow the district to fund the balanced budget approved in August.

JISD actually lowered the tax rate for the second consecutive year. Last year's rate was $1.60.

"We are very pleased," JISD Finance Director Carolyn Foster said. "We are disappointed at the low turnout but happy that we will be able to fund the budget. We were told prior to the election that voting would probably be light across the state because there were no candidates running for office, plus we haven't had a rollback election in a long time."

There was still some confusion among voters on

"Our plan is to have ourselves in the position to being able to influence what happens in the future is already taking place," Breaux said.

Stover admitted to the board that the state was "very concerned" with the detail in the wording of the district's plan.

Stover said the Texas Association of Groundwater District has raised questions over the proposed rules that the Texas Water Development Board is in the process of adopting.

Before a state agency can adopt any rules, the agency has to hold public hearings and can receive written comments as well.

"The issue that has been raised involved the process in determining the desired future conditions of acquifers," Stover said.

The Texas legislature allows groundwater districts to go through the process of adopting their desired future conditions in their district.

"But if any person with a significant interest in the groundwater in the district doesn't like what you have done, they can ask the Texas Water Development Board to review your action to find if there was a reasonable basis for what you did," Stover said. "The Texas Association of Groundwater District has raised an issue that if the proposed rules go beyond what the water plan says. The new rules say the water board is going to tell you what to put in your management plan and not a recommendation.

"All of these districts throughout the state were created to have local control of these issues," Stover said. "The concern is that these proposed rules allows the development board to make these decisions for you."

Stover said the STGCD has had little public comment on the district's management plan so he doesn't anticipate any issues at the state level.

"I don't think that there will be anybody who will be dissatisfied about whatever you do to initiate the process," Stover said.

If the decision-making was turned back over to the state, it might be bad for the state's 84 water districts.

"We are water-abundant here for the time being," Breaux said. "The state is divided into 16 regions and we all have to get together to decide how we will manage the acquifer, which runs from the Sabine River all the way to Houston. And Houston will be wanting and using more water than we do."

In determining a desire future condition for the acquifer, the district has to project how much water they want left in the acquifer 50 years from today.

"This requires an extensive study of the acquifer," Stover said. "You have to determine how much is being recharged in an annual basis and how much is being withdrawn."

Breaux said the first issue the district did was test the model the state used to see how much water was available.

"The problem was that the state used data that goes back to 1999 and for instance the city of Lumberton has exceeded all the projections for population by the state," Breaux said. "We're not in all that bad of shape. We are considered in a recharge area of the acquifier but they still can take it out in the lower end (Houston area)."

For Breaux and the district, they believe the law established in the 1930s in the best.

"All those laws were put in when rural Texas could outvote the more urban areas of the state," Breaux said. "It's junior water rights all over again. We have to protect our groundwater. We need to do all we can to keep all the water that we can.