[Rooster71]

This post does involves politics (at the local level), so I believe it best belongs in this forum. I will explain the situation and please feel free to give ideas. If someone has encountered a similar issue, I would really like to know about it and what actions were taken.

Background
I live in a rural area in north Texas. The local school district is classified as AA (meaning something like 1000-1250 students). This school district already has the highest tax rate of any school district in the county, $1.77321 per $100. Taxes were raised considerable about three years ago when a new high school was built. The school's enrollment is not forecasted for any significant growth in the near future. This district has experienced some financial problems in the last several years due to the actions of a spend-happy superintendent (this individual left the school two years ago when the depth of his financial screw-ups were discovered). However, the budget is once again balanced and the district has overcome these budget woes.

The Problem
Last week a local newspaper published a small news story stating that voters in this school district passed a measure (via an election) to issue $2.5 million in new bonds. The problem here is that the people living in this school district were not informed of this election until after it happened and the issue was passed. Needless to say, voter turnout was a lowly 9%. Even with the school board members persuading their friends and family to vote for the measure, it passed by only about 20 votes. There is no doubt in my mind that this measure would have been soundly defeated if the average public had known about this election. This is not a case of voter apathy, there was no honest attempt made to inform the electorate of the bond election.

Supposedly there was a notice placed in a tiny local newspaper (one with very low circulation), however I read this online and did not see this ad. When I asked local people who voted how they heard about the election, they say the heard about it from a friend or neighbor. I know for a fact that no election notice was ever published in the area's main newspaper. The newspaper where the notice was supposedly published is a small paper (weekly, about 3 or 4 pages per issue) that is not considered to be an actual source of news among the majority of area residents.

So now with the debt service on $2.5 million in new bonds and no funds to pay for it, the taxing authority is working to determine a new tax rate for next year. It is estimated the hike will be in the range of 8-10% per year.

Any thoughts or ideas?