[img]1912|right|Scott Zeidman||no_popup[/img]From Houston, where he was traveling on legal business, former School Board member Scott Zeidman said this afternoon he was both surprised and disappointed the bond measure campaign had undergone an abortion at last evening’s Board meeting.
“I want to do what is best for our schools, and having the schools participate in our community is very important,” he said.
Given a choice of money-raising strategies, Mr. Zeidman favors the parcel tax concept over a bond measure because it is for education.
He vigorously championed the current parcel tax, known as Measure EE, when he was on the Board from ’07 to ’11.
“If they weren’t going to (renew) the parcel tax this year, the bond measure was the next best thing,” Mr. Zeidman said before flying off to San Antonio.
“Now it appears we will do neither (for the November ballot), and that bothers me.”
He is convinced that “the time to do the parcel tax is this November. It takes a year for the money to come in. If we wait until next year (to seek renewal), we will have to do without the money.
“Further, you want to have the election in the same cycle as the School Board election because more people will come out than for another time.
“When I set up EE four years ago, we made it a five-year plan so we could renew in 2013 during the School Board elections.
“It already is July, and I don’t know if there is any way in the world they are going to get Measure EE on November’s ballot,” said Mr. Zeidman.
Pausing for a moment to reconsider, he decided, “I don’t think it is possible to do it effectively at this point.
“For me, I preferred EE because it would give us $6 million over five years, directly for education,” as opposed to buildings repairs, the target of the bond measure campaign.
“The bond would have been a lot more money (possibly $75 million), but it would have gone to facilities. Both, of course, are needed.
“I have to say again that it bothers me that it appears we will have neither on the November ballot.”
As an alumnus of the School Board, what would Mr. Zeidman counsel The Board to do this afternoon?
“Wow,” he said.
“To get together and find some way that is best for our students.”
Would he urge them to swiftly investigate the vagaries of placing a Measure EE renewal on the November ballot?
“No, because it probably would fail. It takes months to do it correctly.”
Do you think the School Board slipped off the rails somewhere during the process?
“I don’t know that they did,” he said. “They focused on the bond issue, and three of the five now decided it was not a good idea for this coming November. By doing so, they pretty much precluded a proper campaign for EE, if they wanted to.
“Understand, I came on the Board when we were flat broke. We had to raise money. We had to do EE. Now there is some money around, and people will say, ‘Nah, we don’t need any more.’
“We may have money today. We may have money tomorrow. But we never know when we are going to run out of money.”
