Denied!

Not too long ago, when a basketball player would go for a shot and that shot was blocked -- and not just blocked, but smacked into the stands with the intensity of a spike in volleyball -- the expression some would cry out was.... DENIED!

Yeah, the rejection of the Katy ISD bond election was something like that. Read the detailed results from the Katy ISD website here. The bottom line: 3990 (53%) against / 3528 (47%) for.

Don't let the "narrow" margin of victory (or defeat, depending on how you look at it) fool you -- this was a resounding loss for the powers that be in Katy ISD. With the amount of "information" they were churning out via e-mails, letters, information sent home with the students, etc. (with some of those advocacy letters and e-mails being sent without the proper political disclaimers), this should have been a slam dunk.

Instead, the voters of Katy ISD shouted: "DENIED!"

The details are interesting. The schools with the highest "denial" rate were usually the "wealthier" schools while those with the more narrow margins or ones that voted in favor of the bonds were generally the more "financially-challenged" schools. I haven't thought that one through yet to figure out the what or why on that, so it's just an observation at this point.

So what is the district going to do now? Well, prior to the defeat, they had this posted under their bond FAQ:

"What is the district’s contingency plan if this bond election doesn’t pass? Katy ISD will make short-term accommodations for growth and facilities using money from the maintenance and operations budget, a measure that will reduce the amount of revenue available to fund the day-to-day activities of the district. (emphasis mine) For 2006-07 alone, the district will purchase 25 buses and approximately 30 portable buildings at a cost of $4.2 million to handle a projected increase in student enrollment of 7.18%."

For those of you who might be troubled that Katy ISD will pull from the General (M&O) budget to pay for things that the bond was going to pay for, don't worry. That is how they were going to pay for the bond in the first place. Read all about that here.

And newly re-elected Katy ISD Board Member Robert Shaw isn't willing to let the ink dry on this election defeat before giving it the ol' college try once again:

"Position 6 incumbent Robert Shaw, who defeated bond opponent Fred Hink by a vote of 3,415-2,891, wants the district to try for another bond election in November.
"I see us trying to bring it back in November. I think we need to regroup and find out what the problem was," Shaw said."

While it sounds a bit premature, I think if they do get the bond back on the ballot in November, I think it will pass. More on the reasons why in a future post.

But for now, congratulations to Katy Watchdogger Tom Law on his election victory, regrets to Watchdogger Fred Hink on his election loss, and congratulations Katy taxpayers!