Here's how the City of Richardson's weekly PR email "Week in Review" put it:
The budget also includes a $0.05421 tax rate reduction, rolling the City’s tax rate back to levels last seen in 2006.Source: City of Richardson.
That's a "tax rate reduction", right? The City says so, right there. Not so fast.
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| Rotten Tomatoes |
It looks like the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) is going to kick the can down the road, deciding to wait until next term to rewrite the Texas social studies curriculum (what we know as the TEKS). Why? It appears that the SBOE caved to pressure from right-wing Republican lawmakers who objected to the standards coming out of the curriculum committee. When the SBOE decided to delay, Republican lawmakers celebrated on Twitter, "The board voted to scrap the wokeified proposed changes to the TEKS." The likely explanation for delay is that right-wing Republicans hope that they can increase their majority on the SBOE next term and get proposals more in line with their politics.
After the jump, more random thoughts.
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| From 2020 01 31 New Orleans |
Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Mississippi River south of New Orleans. It's just wetlands and occasional oil equipment all the way from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico.
Bonus photo after the jump.
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| Rotten Tomatoes |
Richardson ISD is the fifth most diverse school district in Texas, and the largest in north Texas. RISD has recognized that fact for years and, in response, in 2019 adopted an "Equity, Diversity, Inclusion Policy" (EDI).
"June 10, 2019, is a big day," Superintendent Jeannie Stone said. "It's a big, big day." It was the day that the Richardson ISD Board of Trustees adopted the RISD Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) Policy in a unanimous 7-0 vote. "Once approved, trustees and members of the public delivered a standing ovation."Source: Community Impact.
That was then. This is now. We all know what's happened in between, to Superintendent Stone and to RISD's unity. The three most contentious issues in 2021 were COVID-19 mitigation policies, Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), and, of course, EDI. It's time to check in on the (new) Board of Trustees and see where they stand on EDI.
This slide was in the City of Richardson's slide show regarding the 2022-2023 budget. The good news is that the City is proposing to lower the tax rate, to the maximum rate allowed by law without voter approval. The not so good news is that the new rate leaves Richardson with a significantly higher tax rate than Plano, Frisco, Allen, and McKinney have now, some of which haven't even yet set their own 2022-2023 tax rates, so things might get worse for Richardson, relative to these other cities.
Of course, what you pay in property taxes depends on two factors: the tax rate and your home's appraised value. Even with a lower tax rate, your tax bill is, more than likely, going up. But alert homeowners know all this already. Really alert homeowners might also know something else that I just noticed about this table.
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| From 2020 01 31 New Orleans |
Today's photo-of-the-day is from New Orleans. It was the last day of January, 2020. Mardi Gras was just getting warmed up. We were in town for only a couple of days before boarding a cruise ship for the Bahamas. The novel coronavirus was, at most, a minor story about events from far away. Little did we know what was in store. Our vacation was the last we would be taking for two long years.
Bonus photo after the jump.
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Where Am I Wednesday?
Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.
Answer will be given on Thursday.