May 5, 2018 Local Elections

Saturday, May 5, are local municipal and school board elections. Early voting is Monday, April 23-Tuesday, May 1.

Registered voters in Tarrant County may early vote at ANY Tarrant County location. If you vote on Election Day, Saturday, May 5, YOU MUST VOTE where your PRECINCT votes.

ARLINGTON

District 1 (generally considered North Arlington)

The Arlington Spectator staff RECOMMENDS - BARBARA ODOM-WESLEY.  Helen Moise won with 56%.

Ms. Odom-Wesley responded to question. Her opponent refused. According to the Arlington Republican Club, Ms. Odom-Wesley is a Democrat and her opponent is a Republican. Yet, the opponent gives me no reason to believe she is a RINO, at best. Given the options, the choice is easy. If a candidate asking for your vote is going to refuse to respond to questions, I see little chance of improvement once they are elected.

District 6 (city wide)

The Arlington Spectator staff gives a LEANs towards - CHRIS DOBSON.  Robert Shepard won with 66%.

Mr. Dobson answered some of the question. His opponent refused. We are not thrilled with Mr. Dobson's stance on marijuana or his voting nickname. His opponent has a voting record where he constantly comes off as a RINO.

District 2 (generally considered Southwest Arlington)  Sheri Capehart won with 100%.

noncontested. The incumbent has one of the strongest liberal voting records. She does NOT deserve your vote, not that it makes a difference.

District 7 (city wide)  Victoria Farrar-Myers won with 100%.

noncontested. The incumbent, VICTORIA FARRAR-MYERS did respond to questions and her voting record grades highest among council members. She will get our vote.

1/4-cent sales tax renewal towards street repairs

The Arlington Spectator staff RECOMMENDS - AGAINST.  FOR won with 88%.

We are all for necessary road repairs. The issue here is where does the money come from. Property tax keep raising, then fix the streets with those funds and stop sales taxing me to do it.

AISD - all places are district wide

Plain and simple. I do not know what questions to ask of AISD candidate to determine a better choice. So much is controlled by the staff. Therefore ALL my selections are based on personal prejudice without necessary sound reasoning. I did send the candidates a question and I got three responses back.

Place 1 -  These are definitely my favorite two candidates of the eight running. The incumbent Polly Walton will probably be my choice because she has responded to questions and issues when they have occurred. Potential Negatives: Walton is too pro-teachers' association and Luis Castillo is too pro-Hispanic on issues that may come before the board. Both responded to the question below [Mr. Castillo has the better answer].  Polly Walton won with 71%.

Place 2 - My vote will probably go to the incumbent, Kristen Hudson over Melody Fowler. Three years ago Ms. Hudson was one of my favorite two running against my favorite, Peter Baron and she pulled off the upset. I've been a bit disappointed. Potential Negatives: My understanding is Ms. Hudson's child is no longer within the district. Ms. Hudson responded to the question.  Melody Fowler won with 54%.

Place 3 - My vote probably goes to the challenger, Roger DeDrang, over incumbent Aaron Reich. Potential Negatives are great on both candidates.  Aaron Riech won with 75%.

Place 5 - Hold my nose, and maybe pick Justin Chapa over challenger Hunter Crow. As bad as Place 3 was, this is easily my hold-your-nose vote.  Justin Chapa won with 77%.

I asked the eight school board candidates these questions.

Dear Candidates:
Most homeowners have received tax notifications from TAD (Tarrant Appraisal District) about a double-digit percent increase in the value of their homes.
1. If elected, do you see yourself fighting hard for a decrease in the $1.04 M&O portion of the tax rate?
2. If elected, do you see yourself fighting hard for using some of the M&O funds to help lower the debt payment portion of the tax rate?

Polly Walton's response [Place 1 incumbent]:
1.  I will not be advocating for a decrease in the $1.04 M & O portion of the tax rate.  Because of the broken state public school funding system, more burden has been placed on local tax payers to just stay even.  In order to provide the necessary funds to pay for the needs of our students, we can not consider such a move.  Currently the state is only providing 38 % of the money required to balance our budget.  This is down from 45 % two years ago.  The broken state funding system keeps pushing us deeper and deeper into a deficit.
2.  I will not be advocating to use M & O funds to lower debt payment.  Currently the I & S fund is at .32867 and this is sufficient to pay our debt.  In fact, we lowered this rate from .35 last year to give our tax payers a small tax break.
Thanks for your interest in AISD financing.  I haven’t seen you in our audience is months.  Hope you are well.

Kristen Hudson's response [Place 2 incumbent]:

Thank you for the thoughtful questions.
I understand your concern.  Although the M&O rate has stayed the same for quite a number of years, the effective rate increases with property values.  However, it is not fiscally viable for the district to lower the M&O rate because when property values increase, the state decreases its portion of the funding provided to the district, effectively nullifying any increase the district would receive as a function of the increased property tax revenue.
In other words, the state funding of our schools is inversely proportional to property tax revenue.  The funding we receive essentially remains the same, regardless of the value of the taxable land in our district.  This is an oversimplification because there are functions that incentivize districts to increase the property tax rate, thereby reducing the state obligation.  Because of those functions, simply lowering our rate does not mean that our state income would increase proportionally.
Although I agree that the property tax burden on residents needs to be addressed, the individuals who can really make that change are our state legislators.  I invite you to join with us in our advocacy for an improved, transparent public school funding system in Texas that provides adequate funding to address all of the needs of our students as well as funding the mandates imposed by legislation from our state officials.

Luis Castillo's response [Place 1 challenger]
Thank you for posing these fiscally conservative questions.  My responses are below.
1.  I have a bias against bureaucrats and policy makers who are always looking for ways to spend, spend, and spend other people's money.  If elected, I would be a strong advocate for the following:
*  immediately cease across the board and percentage pay raises;
*  streamline the bureaucracy;
*  streamline district owned property and facilities by consolidating;
*  utilize the least-cost alternative on projects and programs;
2,  The revenue and cost savings generated from the cost cutting measures listed in #1 above may be utilized to lower the debt payment portion of the tax rate.