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FBN: Estimated Storm Damage To County Will Exceed +20 Million-click the title link for more-

Costs To Fort Bend From Hurricane Ike Easily Will Exceed $20 Million
by Bob Dunn, FBN

Fort Bend County will sustain well beyond $20 million in costs attributed to Hurricane Ike, the edge of which blew through the county Sept. 13.

County Judge Bob Hebert said at Tuesday's Commissioners Court session that it probably will cost the county $20 million for debris clean-up alone after the storm. He estimated 750,000 to 1 million cubic feet of tree limbs and other debris were left on the ground.

Fort Bend also realized hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to county property, including the First Colony Branch Library, which still is closed, Hebert said. Also, a significant amount of overtime must be paid to deputies and constables who worked long extra hours before and after the hurricane.

Court members voted to declare a budget emergency and authorize spending up to $15 million to cover some of those costs. . .(click the title link above)

Some FBISD Schools Still Without Power--click here to get the full story--

Follow the link above to see which FBISD schools will be open Monday (9/22).

FBN: 57,000 Still Without Power In FBC

57,000 Still Without Power In Fort Bend; County Office Swamped With Aid Seekers
Bob Dunn

About 57,000 electricity customers - or 31% of the county - still were without power as of Thursday night, in the wake of Hurricane Ike's Saturday landfall, Fort Bend County officials said.

According to a CenterPoint Energy map made public Wednesday, most of those customers are in Sugar Land, Missouri City, Arcola and Fresno, and areas in the east county's unincorporated areas.

For Friday, two distribution centers still remained open to provide water and ice to people without power or in need.

One is at Mercer Stadium in Sugar Land, at 16403 Lexington Blvd.; the other is at Southern Ice Cream Corp. in Stafford, at 13755 Greenland Dr.

Fort Bend residents swamped the Rosenberg offices of the county Health & Human Services Department on Thursday, seeking information about food stamps, financial assistance and other aid. . .

FBISD Schools Closed Until Monday Sept. 22nd Due To Recovery Efforts!

Click here for the latest on Hurricane Ike (From FBN)-

FB Sun/FB Independent: No CAD CAPs,…Why Mr. Howard?

Guest column as it appeared in the Fort Bend Sun & Fort Bend Independent following the FBISD budget hearings and vote:

No CAD CAPs,…Why Mr. Howard?
FBISDWatchDogs

http://fbisdwatch.blogspot.com

I’d like to start off with a quote from a local media source using the Tax Foundation & US Census bureaus government finance division data:

"According to the latest study by the Tax Foundation (2006-07), Fort Bend County property taxes are higher than any other Texas county, and sixth-highest in the nation in terms of taxes as a percent of the median home value. Only 5 upstate counties in New York have a higher amount." FBN

-This is in reference to the “fund balance” (school surplus) we often hear so much about and the recent tax increase just voted in…

Consider this, the district, according to several media sources, through open records requests, is keeping nearly a 100 million dollar fund balance (surplus). Almost 20 million over state suggested guidelines in their accounts. Additionally, the district included, in November of last year, a record bond/debt to target growth related areas. Why, with all this money, can they not balance the budget without a tax increase this year? The district should be able to give the teachers & employees a raise while balancing the budget and drawing down the size of the fund balance (district surplus) within state guides. We should also be seeing a concerted effort by other local entities and our legislature to support appraisal caps, as is a recent proposal by Dan Patrick (R). Ask Bob Hebert (R), our chief county judge, some local mayors, like Allen Owen (R) and our state rep., Charlie Howard (R), why our county and some of its city officials are behind the hiring of lobbyist we pay our taxes to in order to defeat bills like representative Patricks? Just this year alone our county had another record number of CAD valuation protests filed.

Is Planning & Urbanization Good?

Further, who is conspicuously not at the table during all this? Over the past few years we have seen the school district charged full market value on land for the big master-planned communities who need district schools in their communities to sell homes/land. Why are these large companies not at the table kicking in the school land at cost, saving taxpayers/voters tens of millions of dollars? Why are some of these same development companies allowed to proliferate high density multi-family housing (apartments) in our school districts knowing full well it creates over-crowded conditions with less produced taxes per student head. This is the same crowd that pushed through the record bond debt for the district last year spending large amounts advertising for it with the slogan, “we like higher property valuations” (which is code for higher tax appraisals). Shouldn't they be at the tax table giving back to the community, rather than just taking? Sugar Land city council is engaged in an apartment dispute with a company right now that could further harm the district as we urbanize at the direction of these special interests.

All parties need to be at the table kicking in before taxes are increased! I would also like to strongly encourage all taxing entities to hold these PUBLIC tax hearings at times convenient for the commuting workers and families of our community.

http://fbisdwatch.blogspot.com/2008/08/chron-nearly-20-million-in-district.html

http://fbindependent.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=Default&mad=&sdetail=782&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=2531&hn=fbindependent&he=.com

FOR THE LATEST ON FORT BEND COUNTY-WIDE NEWS VISIT FORTBENDWEB.COM--click the title link for more

Fortbendweb Update: School District Ignores Surplus While Raising Local Property Taxes!--click the title link for more--

FBISDWatch Update: Bhuchar Issues Statement On FBISD Budget, Howard Criticism

Get the update on the controversial tax increase. Click the title link...