TITLE GOVERNOR

Proclamation

BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF TEXAS (41-2899)

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME:

WHEREAS, the Board of Trustees of the Boerne Independent School District has requested that I exercise the governor's power to grant an emergency exception to the uniform election date requirements pursuant to Tex. Elec. Code Ann. §§41.001, 41.0011 (Vernon 1986 & Supp. 2002), and grant their request for a maintenance tax election on June 15, 2002; and

WHEREAS, Texas law requires an independent school district to submit a maintenance tax increase to the voters for approval pursuant to Tex. Educ. Code §§45.002-45.003 (Vernon 1996 & Supp. 2002); and

WHEREAS, in August of 2001, the Boerne Independent School District raised the tax rate from the rate of $1.40 per $100 valuation previously approved by the voters in 1970, to a tax rate of $1.4465 on the board's own motion, without the required approval by the voters at an election pursuant to Tex. Educ. Code §45.003 (Vernon 1996 & Supp. 2002); and

WHEREAS, the school district has already made use of the Texas Election Code's grant of authority to a school district to use one non-uniform election date per fiscal biennium for a bond election it conducted on December 8, 2001; and

WHEREAS, the next uniform election date upon which the voters could either ratify or reject the current illegal $1.4465 tax rate is thus Saturday, September 14, 2002, a date occurring after the 2002-2003 school year commences, and over one year after the tax rate was adopted without voter approval; and

WHEREAS, the vast majority of taxpayers have no other remedy from the current illegal tax rate; and

WHEREAS, my office is granted the discretion under Tex. Elec. Code §41.011 (Vernon Supp. 2002) to declare an emergency warranting holding a special election before the appropriate uniform election date;

NOW THEREFORE I, RICK PERRY, GOVERNOR OF TEXAS, under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Laws of the State of Texas, do hereby declare the following:

The fact that the current tax rate of $1.4465 was imposed without the legally required voter approval, and only that condition, constitutes an emergency in the Boerne Independent School District. Therefore, I grant permission to the Boerne Independent School District to conduct a maintenance tax election on June 15, 2002, for the limited purpose of voting for or against remedying the legal defect in the current $1.4465 tax rate by raising the $1.40 legal cap to comport with that rate.

A copy of this proclamation shall be transmitted immediately to the Superintendent of the Boerne Independent School District.

All proper proceedings shall be followed to the end that said election may be held on June 15, 2002 in accordance with law if the Board of Trustees exercises its authority to call the election for June 15, 2002 rather than on a uniform election date pursuant to this proclamation.

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto signed my name and have officially caused the Seal of State to be affixed at my Office in the City of Austin, Texas, this the 1st day of May, 2002.

Rick Perry, Governor