The TCC Board of Trustees has raised the property tax rate after a 5-1 vote during its Sept. 10 meeting.
Laura Forkner Pritchett was the lone vote against the hike. She said the board needs to find other ways of cutting costs, such as auditing administrative hiring and removing student health services, including STD testing.
“We often hear presentations framing a tax increase in terms of the annual impact on homeowners, noting that it might only equate to an extra 20, 30 or 50 dollars a year for the typical homeowner, but it is not up to this board to minimize what a dollar means to another individual,” she said.
Veronica Chavez Law pointed out Pritchett’s absence at two workshop meetings ahead of the vote.
“I respect trustee Laura Forkner Pritchett, her stance on it of course and her reasoning,” Chavez Law said. “But I do want to point out that we all were at two sessions that Miss Pritchett was not at that she could’ve asked questions about the budget to drill down … We all had more opportunities at meetings that you didn’t come to that you could’ve asked questions. I’ll leave to say this, that I’ll hope you would reconsider and support this.”
Board member Gwendolyn Morrison asked that board members consider the value of their work, and what they produce.
“There is no greater investment in my experienced opinion than educating a human being, and it is with that that I now say that I will support the tax increase, and for the first time I will ask fellow board members to consider also approving this increase,” Morrison said.
Sayeda Bilqees Syed, a Tarrant Appraisal District board candidate, was the only speaker to attend the public hearing session over the tax increase.
“Please do not increase the tax rate,” Syed said. “It will affect non-homestead residential properties. It will affect the business community. It will affect commercial properties. It will affect the struggling people, especially those homeowners who did not get a chance to protest their property values.”
Over $90 million in contracts and construction projects were proposed at the workshop session.
The construction of a “Simulated Clean Room” on South Campus would cost over $1.5 million.
“The types of jobs that are trained for the clean room are going to be inclusive of our advanced manufacturing programs, such as robotics, mechatronics, electronics, microelectronics and nanomanufacturing,” South Vice President for Academic Affairs Stephen Jones said.
Chief Financial Officer Pamela Anglin asked the board to approve the remaining costs to build the NE Campus science building, which would be over $86.5 million. This does not include the overall cost of renovating the current science buildings. These projects combined could cost around $222 million, Anglin said.
