During an Aug. 25 meeting, board members also let the tax rate ride next year at the current $1.20250 per $100 evaluation level. That approved rate includes a $1.04 maintenance and operations tax that feeds the general fund balance and a $.1625 debt service tax.

“As projected, the 2010-11 budget includes use of general fund reserves due to factors such as the economic environment and state funding, (which has remained) essentially at the same level since 2006,” district Superintendent Nola Wellman said. “Throughout the coming year, the district will seek ways to trim expenditures whenever possible without adversely affecting the classroom.”

The district expects to collect $94.1 million in property taxes this year, down from the $99.6 million it collected last year. The revenue the district receives from the state this year will increase $3.2 million to $15.4 million to cover that decrease in property tax revenue.

In addition to the $66.4 million the district will expend to operate its facilities during the 2010-11 school year, it will give the state another $53.2 million in recapture money that will be used to help operate property poor school districts.

“Developing a financial plan or budget for our school district should, like a business or household, be done with a long-term perspective,” said Paul Stone, board president. “It is simply a fact of life that there is rarely enough money to pay for everything we would like to have. There are also things we cannot control – state education funding, property values, the number of families moving into the district and the general economy – that directly impact our finances.”

Stone said the district had developed its fund balance over the past years to give board members and administrators time to adjust to those types of uncontrollable financial forces.

“The district is keenly aware that planned deficit budgets cannot continue forever because the fund balance would eventually be exhausted,” Stone said. “So the challenge for this year and in years to come is to continue setting priorities to maintain the excellence that our community expects and deserves, fund as many of the priorities as possible [and] then adjust the budget accordingly. The community expects us to figure it all out, and we will.”

The support the district receives from the community through the Eanes Education Foundation and campus booster clubs makes a huge difference in difficult financial times, Wellman said. EEF gave the district a check for $1.01 in support during the Aug. 25 meeting that will fund 19 teacher positions in the coming school year. An estimated 85 percent of the expenses the district covers each year are in salaries, which means any major reductions in its operating budget will have to revolve around teacher and staff cuts.

“The Board of Trustees will discuss expenditure reductions through the budgeting process, which gears up after January,” Wellman said. “Any future budget reductions that the board may discuss will not take place until 2011.”

In a July 28 preliminary budget presentation, district business office head Larry Keiser told board members that the district would continue to drain the fund balance for at least the next seven years, or until the state overhauls the public school finance system.

For residential customers, monthly charges for lines one inch or less will go up $2.70 to $47.70 per month. Other sized lines will not see an increase in base charges.

In addition to the flat rate increase, the residential usage rate will increase 35 cents per 1,000 gallons used to $6.15.

Multi-family residential customers will see a base rate increase of $2.15 to $37.93 and an increase of 32 cents per 1,000 gallons used to $5.61.

Non-residential customers will see an increase of $6.87, bringing their monthly base rate to $121.35. The usage rate will be increased 48 cents to $8.53 per 1,000 gallons.

In other action the council approved a variance for an office at 4800 Bee Cave Road to install a sign that is 24 square feet, less than the 48 square feet the applicant asked for. The variance was sought by Stirling Capital Management and Choice Asset Management, the tenants in the building.

The council also voted 4-0, with Councilman Stan Graham abstaining, to lower the maximum speed limit on parts of Westlake Drive to 25 mph. The action is part of series of measures to reduce traffic accidents on the steep, winding roadway.

Just hours after the council’s decision, 27-year-old Sharad Sood of Austin was killed in an early-morning single-vehicle accident on Westlake Drive.

Compared with the same period in 2009, January through August, Rollingwood’s sales tax collections have fallen nearly 4 percent. The only city to take a bigger hit was Manor with a nearly 10.5 percent decrease. Austin saw a 4 percent increase for the same period and Bee Cave saw a 7.2 percent increase.

There was a glimmer of hope in Rollingwood’s collections for August. When compared with the same month last year, sales tax revenue is up almost 14 percent.

The city had projected flat sales tax revenues for the year when drafting the budget last fall, Mayor Bill Hamilton said, and this year, the city’s budget will likely reflect a projected 10 percent drop.

“We’re starting out with a conservative scenario and a tight budget,” Hamilton said, adding that if sales tax revenues turn around next fiscal year, the city will have a rainy day fund.

Amy Simmons, owner of Amy’s Ice Cream, said the company’s location in the Shops at Mira Vista shopping center has seen a slight dip this year in its revenue.

“Our sales are down slightly in the Mira Vista location but much less than I would have guessed,” Simmons said. “I’m kind of surprised that our dip was as small as it was.”

Simmons said that some businesses in the center have struggled and that Freebirds World Burrito left the center for a location outside of Rollingwood and McAlister’s Deli closed. The loss of those and similar businesses has hurt sales tax revenues and decreases traffic for other businesses in the center. The center is an important sales tax generator for the city.

Hamliton also agreed that the hit to restaurants in the city is affecting sales tax revenue.

“When times are tough economically, restaurants are one of the toughest markets,” he said.

Hamilton added that the city would take a focused look at businesses in the area in the coming months and at what the city can do to encourage economic development.

“We’re in a good location, and we need to make it as attractive as possible,” Hamilton said. “We also need to look at how we can keep our office buildings full because that will drive traffic to our businesses.”

While Rollingwood has seen a dip in sales tax revenue, West Lake Hills is virtually flat, with a 0.9 percent decrease in revenue.

The city had conservatively projected a 15 percent decrease for the year during last year’s budget discussions, so the city is in a good position this year, said Robert Wood, city administrator for West Lake Hills.

“We were pretty sure that was overly conservative,” Wood said. “But it’s better to have more money than you thought you would rather than the other way around.”

Wood attributed the relatively flat revenues to the stability of businesses in West Lake Hills.

“Unlike a lot of other cities in Travis County, we don’t have a lot of businesses that deal with discretionary spending.” Wood said. “Our [businesses] are mostly day-to-day type stuff. I think those business will tell you they have slowed down, but they haven’t seen the huge drop off that other places have seen.”

The other side of that coin is that during good economic times, the city doesn’t see large upswings either, Wood said.

“For us, it makes for a stable amount of money coming in each month,” Wood said.

Like Rollingwood, West Lake Hills also saw an upswing for August, 1.46 percent more than August of last year.

Wood said that the city is projecting flat sales tax revenue for the next fiscal year, which begins in October. The city will use these calculations as budget and property tax rate discussions continue.

Maya Pomroy, who opened Brilliant Sky Toys and Books in The Village at Westlake shopping center in June said that business has been steadily picking up this summer.

“We’re seeing steady growth, not as much as we’d like, but I’m very optimistic,” Pomroy said. “In this [economic] environment, you have adjust your expectations. I think this is just a testament to what we are seeing nationally.”

Pomroy and Simmons, who is a former West Lake Hills City Councilwoman, pointed out that shop local initiatives and efforts can help local businesses and keep sales taxes in the hands of local cities.

Pomroy said that while it is tough for local businesses to compete with big box stores, Austinites and Westbank residents have a strong commitment to shopping locally.

“Support your local businesses – it’s your community,” Simmons said.

• The event is free and open to the public. The show offers visitors a chance to see rare and beautiful cacti and succulent species from around the world.  Vendors from Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico will sell native and exotic cacti and succulents and handmade pottery at reasonable prices. There will be a daily silent auction and hourly raffle of rare and collectible cacti and succulents. Educational information, literature and expert advice will be available.

ACSS hosts free public monthly meetings on the third Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Austin Area Garden Center at Zilker Botanical Garden. ACSS also maintains a library of books and journals on cacti and succulents, horticulture and conservation for its members.

For more information, visit www.AustinCSS.com.

• A ban on outdoor burning was approved by the Travis County Commissioners Court last week. The countywide ban was based on dry conditions and long-range forecasts calling for warmer than normal and drier than normal conditions for the next month.

The lack of moisture will allow a fire to start and quickly spread. Larger dead fuels are drying very rapidly and can contribute to the intensity of a fir.

The recommendation to the court included input from the emergency service district fire chiefs, as well as statistical data from the Texas Forestry Service. The Commissioners Court will review the conditions on a weekly basis before taking action to lift a burn ban.

The ban does not affect a prescribed burn under the supervision of a prescription burn manager. It also does not affect outdoor hot work when done under the guidelines established by Travis County Fire Marshal’s Office. Prescription burn managers and those in need of outdoor hot work permits must contact the Travis County Fire Marshal’s Office or the fire department in whose jurisdiction the work will be done.

• The next West Lake Hills City Council is scheduled for 7 p.m. Aug. 11 at City Hall, 911 Westlake Drive.

For more information, visit the city’s website at westlakehills.org.

• Longtime owners of Westbank-based Century Travel RB and Helen Hall recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

They were married 50 years ago in Eastland, Texas, and are celebrating the big event with an upcoming trip to Australia and New Zealand.

• The Healthcare Center at Summit at Westlake Hills recently earned the prestigious Brookdale Cornerstones of Quality award from Brookdale Senior Living, the parent company of the senior living community located at 1034 Liberty Park Drive.

The Cornerstones of Quality for Healthcare Communities is a program that was designed and developed for the Brookdale Senior Living healthcare communities to establish and demonstrate the highest standards of quality care for residents. The Brookdale Cornerstones of Quality philosophy is built on three key components: awareness, responsibility and culture. The purpose of the program is to reward Brookdale communities who learn, improve, and help create and broaden a quality-oriented culture.

• Westlake United Methodist Church Music and Arts Academy is now accepting students.

The academy prepares students for state and community recitals in a creative one-on-one environment. It includes all instruments, including voice.

For more information, call Diana Sanchez-Bushong, director of worship and music, at 327-1335, extension 15.

The Westlake Rotary Club meets Friday at 7:30 a.m. at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, 5455 Bee Cave Road. Cost is $5 or $15 for a full meal.

Call Frank Schleicher at 913-4241 for more information.

Board member Colleen Jones addressed the issue during a July 28 monthly meeting. Board members again broached the topic during a study session Aug. 16.

Allyson Collins, district director of records and legal services, recommended against a board policy regarding conflict of interest for voluntary committee members. She said no other Central Texas school district board currently had such a policy in place.

“Is the problem based on when there is a danger that the personal interest of a committee member affects the decision or the recommendation?” Collins asked. “Where is the line between a potential conflict of interest and a simple vested interest? That line is very thin. I think, in order to put a requirement on someone, we are going to have to be very clear on where the line is. We need a very clear point – ‘Here is when you disclose.’ ”

Board president Paul Stone asked Collins to continue researching the issue.

“There has to be something that has already been put into place that we can adopt,” he said. “That kind of policy promotes an atmosphere of transparency that is important, especially when we are considering things like bond oversight committees.”

Eanes school district Superintendent Nola Wellman expressed concern that such a policy would discourage volunteers and make it more difficult for the school district to find key members for critical planning committees. Collins suggested the board consider having the district adopt administrative regulations that would attempt to limit the possible conflicts of interest of committee members. She and Wellman asked the board to provide more clarification on what conflict of interest policy or regulations should encompass, whether it should be in the form of a disclosure statement or a pledge and who would ultimately be responsible for judging exactly what constitutes unacceptable conflict of interest.

The possible implications of conflict of interest by volunteers who advise or make decisions for the district became an issue of interest to the board in May, when local press revealed that Athletic Director Darren Allman and former district bond advisory committee chairman David Perkins had formed a business, Coach Concepts, a company that Allman told board members planned to offer for-profit athletic training programs to the public.

Board members gave Allman the vote of confidence and found that he had acted appropriately in notifying the district of his involvement in the company, but asked the district to see what policy other school districts have in place to ensure volunteers advising the district do not have conflicts of interest or a financial stake in the eventual decisions being made.

Stone said the district will continue investigating possible ways to guard against the conflict of interest of advisory volunteers.

“The board has asked the administration to formulate a recommendation based on the discussion at the meeting,” he said. “I will work with Dr. Wellman to set (the issue) as an agenda topic at an upcoming study session.”

Law enforcement agencies are stepping up efforts to stop careless drivers and alcohol-impaired drivers from making the holiday weekend as tragic as it has been in previous years. This weekend, we urge parents to talk to their teenage drivers and make sure they understand the consequences of drinking alcohol and driving. The laws are even stricter for teens arrested for driving with any alcohol in their system, regardless of the level. They should know that even if they drive sober, there is added reason to drive even more defensively than usual because statistics indicate they will be sharing the roadways with more drunk drivers than the average weekend.

The Department of Public Safety reports that during last year’s two-week crackdown, officers around the state worked approximately 18,000 combined hours of overtime specifically looking for intoxicated drivers.

TxDOT reports that its Crash Records Information System indicates there were 27,108 alcohol-related crashes in Texas last year that resulted in 955 deaths and 17,542 injuries.

The campaign runs through Sept. 6.

We urge Westbank residents who are venturing out on the highways for a last vacation before the busy fall season to be extra careful to avoid becoming a statistic.

The analysis in last week’s Picayune Letters to the Editor provides a brief insight to the lack of planning and analysis done by the EISD Board and Administration concerning projects included in the proposed $150 million bond package. The River Hills site presents many obstacles for the construction of a school which will translate into expensive building costs to the delight and financial benefit of the architects, engineers, construction managers and other related service professionals who earn massive fees for these projects on top of hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on those same professionals to come up with the projects to begin with.

Proponents of construction of a new elementary on River Hills road would have us believe that the “growth” is to the western part of the district when, in fact, the Eanes ISD 2009 Demographic Report predicts their attendance at Valley View will decrease from 462 students to 351 through 2014, and despite that, the new school is being designed for 550 students. The administration continues to support enrolling out- of-district transfer students who will pay nothing toward the bonds while residents build facilities for them.

Taxpayers should understand that the proposed River Hills elementary school is but one example of projects that are not needed, ill conceived, insufficiently researched, over-priced and not in the best interest of the district. The district’s own facilities manager has stated publicly that we “can’t trust the numbers” for projects included in all three ballot propositions.

Voters in Eanes need to vote no on all three propositions and send the board and administration back to the drawing board to determine true needs and accurate costs. We don’t need a slush fund for the administration to implement its empire-building agenda when the annual budget is operating at record deficits.

Edward Henigin

Whitemarsh Valley Walk

The Eanes school board has included a covered practice facility in the November bond election. It would benefit the several hundred students who use the existing fields on a daily basis during the school year and beyond. It is proper that we should build this facility, and it is long overdue. We need it not because other school districts have built them, but for the same reasons they built them – to protect the kids from heat and inclement weather. Our youngsters swelter in the summer temperatures day after day. When the temperature reaches what to us is 102 or 103 degrees, the temperature on the practice fields is surely 118 or 120 or higher. Students in full uniform suffer greatly but endure because of the love of their special activity and for their school. We are lucky we have not had a student suffer from heat prostration, or worse, heat stroke. These symptoms are associated with high temperatures and high humidity, a daily hazard on our practice fields. A student at another school died of heat stroke a few hours after I helped carry him off their practice field. No parent will ever want to witness their child in this condition.

This is not an issue where we can equate a child’s health with the cost of the structure. If it is to be built, voters in the Westlake community must become involved and participate in the election because it is not merely a school issue. Parents whose children use the fields might bond together, form working committees and search for ways to let the community voters know that these dangers exist. More ideas can be developed by people who are good leaders and good organizers. I hope some will volunteer. Our children need them.

The Eanes school board has given us this great chance to protect our kids. It may be our last time to vote on this issue for years to come. It is time to support the board in its decision to include the covered facility in the bond proposal. We must start now.

Ed Ramsey

Fainwood Lane

Special to the Picayune

Bullets from a gun battle in Juarez, Mexico, struck a building on the campus of the University of Texas-El Paso over the weekend of Aug. 21-22.

“For the second time in two months, bullets from a gun battle in the escalating drug war in Juarez have struck a building in El Paso, and I’d like to commend the swift action taken by local and state law enforcement in the area, Gov. Rick Perry commented on Aug. 23.

“We must ensure El Paso and other border communities remain a safe place for people to live, work and raise a family. It’s time for Washington to stop the rhetoric and immediately deploy a significant force of personnel and resources to the border to protect our homeland,” Perry said.

In June, bullets from a gun fight in Juarez struck El Paso City Hall and nine months earlier, a building and a vehicle on the University of Texas-Brownsville campus also were hit by stray bullets from Mexico.

School funding looms as issue

A movement to push school finance as high as possible on the agenda for the coming 82nd session of the Texas Legislature is emanating from Aledo, a city of 1,726 people about 18 miles west of downtown Fort Worth.

The Aledo Independent School District board of trustees on Aug. 26 announced a statewide initiative, “Make Education a Priority.”

Bobby J. Rigues, the school board’s vice president, said he is asking other school districts to adopt a resolution lending their support to the initiative to raise awareness of the growing financial crisis that public school districts are facing and encourage state legislators to work with local school board members and other stakeholders to find a solution.

Denison ISD, Goose Creek Consolidated ISD, Round Rock ISD and Silsbee ISD are on board, and state Sens. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, and Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, and state Reps. Phil King, R-Weatherford, and Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, have written letters of support regarding the initiative.

Rigues said 2006 legislation that cut property taxes by one third fell short by not establishing a reliable new stream of revenue and now “more than half of the school districts in Texas are being forced to use dollars from their fund balances for daily operating expenditures — a practice that is neither financially sound nor sustainable over the long-term. In addition, teaching positions are being eliminated, salaries reduced and local educational programs removed to meet reduced budgets.” In 2007, and 2009, legislators were unsuccessful in addressing school funding shortcomings, Rigues added.

And today, with a budget deficit approaching $20 billion, legislative leadership must work with the education community to find a creative solution that does not incur significant cost. “Until education becomes a real priority, serious solutions to school finance will never be found,” Rigues said.

AGs call on Craigslist to stop

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and 16 other state attorneys general signed a letter to Craigslist, the worldwide classified advertising website, to stop publishing advertisements that solicit prostitution.

“As presiding officer of the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force,” Abbott said, “I am very concerned that Craigslist refuses to take meaningful measures to prohibit the solicitation of prostitution on its website. Too often, prostitution cases involve children and other victims who are coerced or forced into prostitution by oppressive human traffickers.

Donor list reaches million mark

One million Texans have now registered with the Glenda P. Dawson Donate Life – Texas Registry, the state’s organ and tissue registry as potential donors, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced Aug. 23.

Texas residents can register at their local DPS office when applying for or renewing a driver’s license or identification card, or they can enroll in the registry online at www.donatelifetexas.org or www.donevidatexas.org. Registrants receive a donor card.

Call made for algebra videos

Gov. Perry and the Texas Education Agency are asking Texans to submit short videos or audio files to support teachers, students, and families in preparing students for success in algebra. Videos may be submitted to iTunes@tea.state.tx.us.

Currently, instructional videos in algebra and many other subjects may be viewed free of charge at the nonprofit website, www.khanacademy.org.