Football entree with education fries (Garland, McKinney: get credit, school districts, universities)

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by Ishad

The 2014 Katy bond approved a $25 million dollar Agricultural Science Center and a $4.5 million science, technology, engineering and mathematics project center. $50 million for upgrades of instructional technology tools (computers, tablets, printers, sound systems, design and update existing digital libraries) and around $350 million dollars for new schools. Football is the main?

I'd consider (emphasis on consider) voting for that, but not if the new stadium was bundled in.

[MurphyPl1]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

The weirdest thing is the new stadium is right across the street from the old stadium, and they don't plan on tearing the old stadium down, but rather will be using both.

I can see that. We live close to Kimbrough stadium in Murphy (PISD) and it gets used most nights of the week and Saturdays. It's far more than just Friday night varsity football.

[jdallas]

Football coach is the highest paid public employee in Texas. That says a lot but Texas is certainly not alone in this by any means.


So many stats on how difficult athletic scholarships are to get yet so many point to that as a justification while libraries don't get built. Anyway, not my soapbox and my district hasn't passed a football tax yet. They went a similar route as Katy. The closest school only has flag football and some parents grumble about it but their academic scholarship totals are phenomenal.


I do find the recent cheerleading camp problems in Colorado relevant from the other side of the gender fence.
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The discussion after the article is worthwhile.


I'm sure some there will be some wonderfully brotastic responses.

[Ishad]

Originally Posted by jdallas

Football coach is the highest paid public employee in Texas. That says a lot but Texas is certainly not alone in this by any means.

In the majority vast majority of states the highest paid public employee is a college football or basketball coach. All it really says is universities have plenty of money since they don't have to pay their athletes.

Garland is getting a $30 million dollar Natatorium. Is that really that much different than a brand new football stadium?

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

I think the Texas fascination with high school school football is weird. Very weird. Never in a million years would I consider going to watch a high school football game if I didn't have a child or a family friend playing.

Spending this kind of money on football stadiums seems to me to be an indication of having priorities in the wrong place.

[UnfairPark]

Who is going to pay off these bonds, how and when?

[TheOverdog]

Who is going to pay off these bonds, how and when?

They are paid from your percent of property tax that is taken by the ISD, generally over 15-30 years.

[UnfairPark]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

They are paid from your percent of property tax that is taken by the ISD, generally over 15-30 years.

Got it. I guess current homeowners, administrations and board members aren't going to be around then and it's going to be a headache of future folks?

[TheOverdog]

I guess current homeowners, administrations and board members aren't going to be around then and it's going to be a headache of future folks?

Not exactly. The bonds generally start to be repaid the year they are issued. So Allen is a few years into paying for their stadium, etc. Through financial savvy, they may or may not result in an increase in taxes, as they may be replacing expiring (paid off or refinanced) bonds with a higher interest rate where the net taxes are the same. Of course, if the bonds aren't issued, the tax rate can fall because the ISD doesn't need to recapture as much money.

The headache for future generations comes if population growth doesn't increase, as that is necessary to sustain bond payments and the increased expense of maintaining the built assets until they are destroyed or sold to someone else. Future maintenance must be paid for out of a future bond (dependent upon borrowing ability) or from incoming capital.

[platon20]

Bonds should not be used for operating costs but they SHOULD be used for future schools.

Using bonds to pay for massive stadiums is short sighted because they are front-loaded before the next 20 years of school build-out is planned.

So for example a school district proposes a bond for a 50 million dollar stadium in 2017. However there is no advanced funding for the extra school bulidings that the district KNOWS it is going to need by 2022. Therefore they issue the bond for the stadium in 2017 but don't issue a bond for new schools until 2020. By that time people are tired of paying for bonds and those are much more likely to get declined, forcing schools to become overcrowded.

Prosper is a perfect example of this. They approved a 50 million dollar bond for a stadium 7 years ago, but did they include in that bond funding for new school buildings over the next 7 years that meets population demand? Nope. As a result the schools are getting extremely crowded and will require more bonds to fund development.

Here's how athletic stadiums should be handled. It should be a rule that bonds for athletic stadiums can only be submitted if the district has proven that it has already issued bonds for construction meeting school building progress to cover population expansion over the next 10 years. Only AFTER those school building bonds are assured should they be allowed to seek funding for football cathedrals.