Bastrop Ballot Propositions: Good deals A thru K, Bad deals L & M, No deal ESD#3

Vote NO on Prop L, City of Bastrop voters.

Independent Texans PAC and the League of Independent Voters recommend the following on Bastrop Ballot Propositions.

City of Bastrop’s Charter Amendments: YES on A thru K,

K most important to pass!

NO on Prop L, M, and NO ESD#3 tax hike

YES on Props A, B, E, F, G, and H: They amend the Bastrop city charter to conform to state laws passed by the Legislature, to get rid of now legally irrelevant or outdated language, or to clarify what is already in practice (Prop H).

Election Info here. You can also print out a shorter version of this post to take with you to the polls here.

Why YES on Props C, D, and K*: All are basic and common-sense open government amendments.

*YES (FOR) on Prop K is especially important:

Prop K

 Proposition K is about transparency.  Right now, a voting block of council members – 3 out of 5 — can meet privately to discuss city business, out of the public eye. That’s all kind of wrong that can be stopped with Prop K. Please share this with your city of Bastrop friends. Visit Bastropians for Open Government for more details here. Don't BOG transparency down, y'all!

YES (FOR) on Prop I:

Prop I

Bastrop City Council members including the Mayor are paid no salary. They currently receive a monthly stipend -- $75 for City council and $150 for the Mayor. Prop I will NOT APPLY to any current members of the Council or the Mayor. If Prop I passes, stipends will be raised to $300 per month for City Council and $400 per month for the Mayor. Given the amount of time given by Council members and the Mayor to the city, this is the least we can do.

Prop J

YES (FOR) Prop J:

This measure would ensure a citizen Charter Review Commission is established every 6 years when the city charter is reviewed. As it is written now, citizen input is not required and the charter review would be based on a written report from the City Manager.

NO (AGAINST) Prop L:

No on L

The city of Bastrop has always required that their city manager live within the city. It’s in the city charter. The current City Manager wants to live outside the city in the county, but changing the charter to remove it altogether would allow the City Manager to live anywhere at all. In a county known for its emergencies, on its face, this is a bad idea. Moreover, it would be fiscally prudent to have the highest paid city employee (the current City Manager is paid $230,000 per year, in our view $50,000 more than she should be paid) paying the same tax rates to the city as the citizens they serve. (See chart of City Manager salaries in 20 comparable Texas cities here.)

NO (AGAINST) on Prop M

No on M

We have always defended the right to petition, even when citizen petitions get things wrong. It appears to us that Ground Game, the proponents of this petition, have failed to make their case for passage of this proposition, which claims to be for the “limited enforcement of marijuana offenses.”

The City of Bastrop’s police department already makes low level marijuana offenses a low priority. The City has posted their police department’s response to this measure in this seemingly fair explanation of Prop M at the end of this page here.

In the explanation linked above, city police claim that this measure could “potentially increase” enforcement of low-level marijuana offenses. We are trying to fact-check this claim, but this is really the responsibility of the proponents of Prop M.

We asked the proponents to provide their arguments for this amendment and to even counter the Bastrop police claims. We have not received a response and there is no website providing the argument for Prop M. Therefore, we are suggesting a No vote.

Regrettably, NO on ESD#3

No on ESD#3

Though it is clear that most Bastropians (who live in the city or county) need more ambulance service, this proposition is asking for a lot of money. If this passes a $.10 per $100 valuation of your home value will be added to your property taxes. For example, for a home worth $200,000, the homeowner will see a $200 raise in their property taxes. This tax hike will also likely be reflected in rents.

As we see it, the problem is there’s little information to clarify other potentially more affordable options, which might have included easing this tax hike in for Bastrop’s modest-income residents. There are no exemptions for seniors.

Here is the proponent’s website. They are good people working in EMS, but there just isn’t enough information for us to support this yet:  https://voteforbastropesd3.org

We hope if this measure fails, another option comes forward in the near future. We would be happy to play our part to get it passed.

Deeper Dive Homework on ESDs: You may also find this discussion about ESDs at the Texas Municipal League helpful. There can be issues with them if they're not done with precision and care: https://www.tml.org/DocumentCenter/View/195/Emergency-Services-Districts---2015-03-PDF