Say No to ACC

Austin Community College wants to become another taxing entity listed on property owners’ tax receipts and that’s a BAD deal for us who live in Hays CISD, although the Kyle city council applauds the idea.(re: Hays Free Press, Feb 10)

The ACC president has convinced the Kyle City Council that property owners would be happy to pay another $150 per year so that a handful of part time students will get a discount on their tuition. That’s crazy!

Helping the economically disadvantaged? It’ll really help those on the precipice of foreclosure; this extra tax would be the tipping point.

With $12 billion dollars of taxable property in Hays Co. (not including Ag exemptions), ACC stands to clear approx. $12 million in place of the $2.4 million in discounts granted. Now my figures aren’t perfect but if they err, it’s on the side of ACC.

This tax would be an entitlement in perpetuity. It’ll be there forever. We have carried students on our backs for 13 years K through high school. Enough already!

College is expensive but it doesn’t have to be. Why do college trustees raise tuition? Primarily because they can. Go to your public library (the absolute best deal for your tax dollars) and find “The Week” (a news magazine.) May 18, 2007 and read the article, “The $180K Diploma.” You will be shocked. College students in my day lived below the poverty level with high expectations for the future, and in the summer worked jobs and lived with the folks. We earned during the summer enough to pay for a whole 9 months.

With property and income taxes we will never own our homes and businesses: we are sharecroppers in the true sense of the word. Now ACC wants us to shoulder another onerous tax. The average taxpayer on a dinky Kyle lot with a less than 1200 sq ft home already pays $2770 per year. And somebody else wants even more!

Petitions are being circulated to get this measure on the ballot come November. If someone comes to your porch asking you to sign it, have a cow patty ready to give to him and call it a fair exchange.

Ray Wolbrecht DDS
Kyle