Burrows learns importance of ASATR

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A state official learned first-hand how important funding is for two Scurry County schools during December.
With the Additional State Aid for Tax Reduction (ASATR) program scheduled to expire prior to the 2017-18 school year, officials with the Snyder and Ira school districts told State Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, how it would affect them.
The program provides state funds to school districts to compensate for state-mandated property tax reductions.
Ira Superintendent Jay Waller said if ASATR funding is eliminated his district would lose $938,000. Superintendent Jim Kirkland said it would amount to $6.5 million for Snyder ISD.
To illustrate the importance of the funds, Waller said he would have to cut 19 of the 21 teaching positions to operate without the funding and Kirkland said it would amount to cutting half of Snyder’s teaching positions.
Homeowners and home builders in Snyder may be eligible for tax breaks if the Snyder City Council votes to approve abatement and home improvement incentives. The council discussed, but did not vote on, the incentives during its Dec. 7 meeting.
The city’s attorney, Bryan Guymon, will bring incentive programs with guidelines for the council to consider and vote on during today’s meeting. The council discussed how new homebuilders, which would include any home on a permanent foundation, would receive a five-year sliding tax abatement. The first year’s city property taxes would be fully abated, with the abatement dropping 20 percent each year.
On Dec. 14, the Snyder City Council agreed that it would seek local solutions for a road rehabilitation program.
The council agreed that it would ask the city staff to include an additional $600,000 in future budgets, ask the county to expand the interlocal agreement to include additional seal coating and street rehabilitation work and to begin work on a rolling five-year plan for infrastructure maintenance and upgrades.
The Snyder ISD board of trustees approved an agreement with Fluvanna Renewable Energy Project, LLC, that could provide $3.9 million to the district over the life of the 10-year appraised value limitation on qualified property — also known as payments in lieu of taxes.
The board also terminated a June 2013 agreement with the planned wind farm that was set to expire on Dec. 31.
Max Drum, one of the project organizers, told the board that nothing has changed with the project.
“It is still a community-owned project,” Drum said, adding that all leases with landowners are still in effect.
On a split vote, Snyder ISD trustees voted against a motion to change the trustees’ district boundaries.
Before the vote, the board discussed the amount already paid to Bickerstaff, Heath, Delgado and Acosta to draw new boundaries. Deputy Superintendent Dr. Randy Burks said any additional costs would be minimal.
Jim Drake made the motion to approve the plan to redraw the district lines with Ralph Ramon and Ron Hester voting in favor. Brad Hinton, Doug Neff, Sarah Jamison and board president Ronnie Anderson voted against the plan.
The Scurry County Hospital District board of directors approved spending more than $10.3 million for the first floor OB suite and third floor surgical suite renovation project. The cost includes $105,447 in three alternate plans — an additional air handling unit for the operating room, alternate flooring in the OB department to match the operating room and additional controls in the new maintenance area for the boilers and pumps.
Two contested commissioners’ court races will be on the March 1 Republican Party primary ballot after filing ended on Dec. 14.
In Pct. 1, incumbent Terry Williams is being challenged by Chuck Colvin and Phillis Leatherwood. In Pct. 3, incumbent David Harrell is being joined on the ballot by Howard Limmer and Chuck McCowen.
Five incumbents filed to run in the Republican primary and did not draw challengers — 132nd Judicial District Court Judge Ernie B. Armstrong, 132nd Judicial District Court District Attorney Ben Smith, Scurry County Attorney Michael Hartman, Scurry County Sheriff Trey Wilson and Scurry County Tax Assessor/Collector Jana Young.
With the final sales tax allocations of 2015, both Snyder and Scurry County saw their lowest December totals since 2011 and 2010, respectively.
The city received $250,824, which is a 28.9 percent decrease compared to the 2014 total of $352,707. For the year, the city received $3.5 million, down 19.5 percent compared to the 2014 total of $4.3 million.
The county received $172,921, down 18 percent compared to the December 2014 total of $210,895.
Scurry County’s unemployment rate and the number of people in the workforce both went down in November.
The November rate of 4.2 percent was down from October’s 4.3 percent. The county had 8,477 people in the workforce during the month and 359 were considered unemployed. In October, 8,610 people were in the workforce with 371 classified as unemployed.
Pipeline operator Kinder Morgan, Inc., slashed its quarterly dividend by 75 percent, saying that doing so would allow it to fund expansion, eliminate the need to tap equity markets and maintain its credit rating.
The Houston-based company said its board approved a cut to its quarterly dividend to 12.5 cents per share from 51 cents per share.