Know the facts before you vote

n response to the uniformed individual behind a newspaper editorial “Think long and hard before creating another cash cow” published in the March 27 edition of the Jackson County Herald-Tribune, let me start off by saying, of all the viewpoints columns I have read except the one mentioned above show a picture and name of the author and I am wondering why this information was omitted from this column? 

The first paragraph is factual. Property owners of the proposed district do have a big decision to make. In the second paragraph it states, “Folks, this is a bad deal and not in the best interest of the whole county.” This is not affecting the “whole county” and what are the facts that make this a bad deal? 

This decision will in fact only affect the residents that live within the metes and bounds of Edna ISD. If the proposed Emergency Services District 3 is voted in, the highest tax rate for ESD3 would be 10 cents on the $100 evaluation of real property within the district. Mind you, this is the maximum tax that can be imposed. The tax rate can vary from $0.00 to $.10. The average house in the Jackson County is valued at $85,900 per census.gov website. This means at the maximum tax the ESD will be able to impose on average would be $85.90 to property owners in the EISD area. 

Emergency Services Districts (ESD’s) are political subdivisions of the State of Texas, which may support or provide local fire prevention, fire suppression, fire extinguishment, emergency medical services, hazardous material incident responses, EMS first responder, rescue services and other emergency services authorized by the Texas legislature. This is not an for ambulance service, as you and your paper continuously insinuate. This is for a fire department that also provides EMS and HazMat.

In order to ever raise this tax about 10 cents the state legislature would have to increase the state maximums and it would have to be reintroduced to the votes.

Also I am not sure if the writer is aware that the City of Edna’s tax rate is $0.3084 on the $100 which is one of the lowest in the area. In fact is one of the lowest in the region that does not sell power and gas to their residents.

You talk about the voter turnout in the recent election. The fact of the matter is no matter how many people show up to vote it still requires a majority vote. 

On to local businesses and the possible businesses looking at the area and what may affect their decisions. The tax may be an issue that the businesses look at, but they also look at the services that are provided in that area, what their insurance premiums will be along with other factors. Your insurance premiums, in one way or another, are affected by the ISO rating of the area your property is insured in. The ISO rates your area as follows: 10% on fire alarms, 40% on water supply and 50% on fire department which reviews the distribution of fire companies throughout the area and checks that the fire department tests its pumps regularly and inventories each engine company’s nozzles, hoses, breathing apparatus, and other equipment. This information is found at www.iso.com.

The Edna Fire Department and the fire marshal’s office perform these checks along with inspection and investigations for local businesses, foster homes, day cares, and schools. 

The City of Edna currently has a rating of five and the county has a rating of nine. If this number increases so will a vast majority of insurance premiums. I strongly advise everyone to call their insurance companies and ask them what would happen if your area went to a volunteer only department.

Currently there are two ESDs in the county – ESD1 which services the Industrial ISD are and the ESD2 which services the Palacios ISD area. In order to even entertain the notion of a countywide fire department one of two things will have to happen. This first option is ESD1 and 2 hold an election to abolish their current ESDs and once abolished start the process of forming a countywide district. If the countywide district would fail then ESD1 and 2 would no longer have a funding source, or the second option would be to establish ESD3 in the Edna ISD area and ESD4 in the Ganado ISD area and then it would be possible to merge into one countywide ESD. 

If the writer has questions regarding this issue, one would think they would seek out these facts instead of publishing their opinion and facts that unable to be verified as facts.

You want to know it “will it work” then ask yourself has it worked, you want to know “how much will it cost:, then read your article it states “The proposed ESD3 would have power to tax up to 10 cents per hundred valuation for those property owners living in the Edna ISD:, and you want to know “that when we dial 911 someone will respond”, of course someone will respond. The question you should have asked is if this ESD does not pass how long will ti take someone to respond when we dial 911. 

So in closing, don’t vote based off the “smoke and mirrors” that are in fact hiding some of the “real issues.” I would like to thank all the county, hospital, and city officials that have worked diligently together on this issue over the past year or so.

Doug Kelley

Edna, Texas

 

(Editor’s note: The article referred to was an editorial that reflected the views of the editorial board of the newspaper.)