|
According to the VoteforNCTC.com web site, the $30.7 million dollar bond could raise our tax rate from 7.17 to 14.37 cents on a 25 year bond @ 4.95% interest.
(NCTC is assuming a $3 billion tax base but according to an article in the July 29 , 2011 Gainesville Register, the Cooke
County Tax Base is 2.9 Billion and that may include those who have their taxes frozen. If so the tax base would be less
than 2.9 billion and the bond payment would have to be shared among less taxpayers resulting in a higher tax rate). Even so, NCTC says that is an increase in the tax rate of 7.20 cents.
It goes on to say that you would pay 14.37 cents for the entire term of the bond. How can they make a statement like
that when NCTC has raised the tax rate the last two years because of declining property values? An NCTC brochure paid
for with your taxpayer dollars said that for the May 2011 election too when the tax rate was 7.12 cents, before they raised
it due to declining property values. Who is doing the misleading? For the typical $100,000
home they like to quote that would increase taxes $72 a year or $1800 over 25 years. If you take their second example
of a 30 year bond and taxes go up $67 a year for 30 years, that comes to $2010 over 30 years. Keep in mind that for
a $200,000 home, we are talking about a tax increase of $3,600 to $4,020 depending on which option you are looking at.
Those tax
increases can really add up over time. If the bond election raises
our NCTC Taxes to $4,000,000 a year as we expect, that would increase our combined Cooke County rate to $239 NCTC per credit hour, (taxes, tuition and fees), yet out-of-county students will be paying $90 per credit hour to take classes next to our Cooke County students in those shiny new buildings. We
would be paying $135 a credit hour more than them. Put another way, our students
and families will pay 2 1/2 times per credit hour to attend NCTC than out-of-county students pay. Is that fair? Have you seen the Letters
to the Editor from former students who live outside Cooke County that want us to vote for the bond issue? Why don't
they move back here and pay the taxes that supported their subsidized education? They sound like typical liberals recruited
by the tax and spend liberals at NCTC, wanting to tell us how to spend our money to their benefit.
Didn't NCTC Board Chairman Bill Ledbetter and Vice-Chairman Dave
Flusche say our NCTC taxes were too high and promise to lower them if we elected them? Please see the
ad they ran to get elected in 2004:
Cooke County Taxpayers Pay Too Much Ad by Flusche, Ledbetter and Gaylord
Dr. Bill Ledbetter & Mr. David Flusche, if $1,734,000 was too much in taxes then, why are we paying more than
$2,000,000 now and why do you want to raise our taxes to more than $4,000,000?
|
 |
|
|
|
Steve Gaylord has proposed for years that NCTC gradually raise Out-of-District Tuition by a few dollars a year while
lowering Cooke County Taxes and Tuition until we get to where when added together, everyone pays the same, consistent with
State Law. Steve Gaylord made a presentation to the NCTC Board in June 2011 showing again, how this could be done.
Proposal on Tuition and Taxpayer Equity presented to NCTC Board June 20, 2011
|
|
|
The net is by raising Out-of-District Tuition and Fees from $90 to $97 a
credit hour, NCTC could cut taxes almost in half from $2,120,000 to $1,150,341.
According to the document the NCTC administration prepared for the June 2011 Board Meeting
and posted on their web site, Cooke County students and taxpayers are already
paying a combined rate of $143 per credit hour compared to $90 per credit hour for out-of-County students. We already
pay $53 per credit hour more than what they pay, before the bond
tax increase: "The calculation was derived by dividing the
2010 taxes levied ($2,120,000) by the 2009-10 in-district semester credit hours (22,627), yielding
a rate of $94. Using the proposed in-district rate of $49, adding $94 would result in a total of $143 per
SCH for out-of-district student"
Based on the college's own analysis, Cooke County pays $143 per credit
hour in taxes, tuition and fees. Yet they let the non-Cooke County students pay $90 per credit
hour whereas if they raised the rate to $97 per credit hour, they could lower our combined
rate to $97 per credit hour. Why won't they treat us fairly? And now
they want to double our tax rate?
Click link to NCTC Analysis of Taxes, Tuition and Fees and our cost of $143 per credit hour.
|
|
|
At the September 2011 NCTC Board Meeting, Steve Gaylord renewed the offer he made in 2008 to demonstrate a commitment
to honesty and integrity:
I’ll extend the offer I made in 2008 through November 8, 2011 to pay $500 to the
favorite charity of the first person who can prove that I knowingly and materially misrepresented factual data about NCTC
and/or the NCTC administration in writing, or a prepared statement. So
far over three years, no one has contacted me to take me up on that offer.
NCTC wants everyone over 65 with their taxes frozen on their homestead to know their taxes won't go up. That
may be true as long as you don't own any land, rental property, a business or mineral rights.
Assuming it
is true, how many of you over 65 would like to pass on your property to your family when you pass on? Hopefully there
are some that will outlive the bond but in almost all cases, even if you were 65 today, you would have to live to be 90 or
95 to outlive the bond. Otherwise if the bond is still being paid on when you pass your property to your next generation,
they will likely be paying the full rate, not the frozen one.
|
|
