Ysleta ISD targeting senior citizens as bond election nears

Senior citizens had a lot to do with the failure of the Ysleta School District’s bond proposal, which is why Superintendent Dr. Xavier De La Torre is making it a point to get their support this time around. But is it working?

De La Torre has gone to more than two dozen meetings targeting seniors, hoping to garner their support for the November bond election. He’s confident this strategy is having an impact.

“The average age of voters in our district is still between 60-to-70 years old,” De La Torre said.

The goal is to make sure the area’s 65-and-older voters are informed about the district’s $430 million bond.

“Most seniors voted against it and it was startling to learn that half of them were not aware of the fact that taxes were frozen at 65,” De La Torre said.

De La Torre said more seniors are changing their mind after learning about Proposition 1 which will be on the ballot. Prop. 1 increases the state homestead exemption from $15,000 to $25,000, which De La Torre said that negates the bond’s $0.12 tax increase, from 1.36 to 1.48 per $100 of home valuation.

But even so, senior’s school district’s taxes are locked in. He’s putting this information on specialized mailers, and talking about it at a number of neighborhood association meetings and rotary clubs.

“The city has reasonable needs, the county has needs,” said senior resident Mike Rooney. “We don’t know what going to happen to UMC because of the Children’s thing, then the community college. The concern has always been that the cumulative tax increase.

Rooney attended one of De La Torre’s meetings. He doesn’t like the idea of how big the bond is, especially for a district with a shrinking student population.

“What I’m afraid of is we’re going to build a couple of mega schools and have the same problem,” Rooney said.

They just don’t understand, they hear taxes and on a fixed income and that scares them,” said older resident, and YISD teacher David Stott.

Stott on the other hand supports the bond, he’s not scared of a higher tax rate.

“With the exemption, and with the proposition that’s being put to the voters of Texas,” Stott said. “its not going up. Its just not. And we just need to sit down and think about it. We’re investing for our kids in the future.

The bond barely failed in May, 51 percent voted against it. If the bond doesn’t pass this time around, De La Torre says it most likely will not be pursued again until 2017.

Early voting ends Oct. 30. The election is Nov. 3rd.