Central Texas split on annexation

Of the five school districts in central Texas that were considering annexation into the ACC taxing district, two voted to do so.

Elgin ISD and Hays CISD are joing the ACC taxing district and a campus will be built in Kyle and Elgin. Those campuses should open in 2013 according to the college.

The annexation will lower the cost of tuition for students in those districts from $150 per credit hour to $42 per credit hour, and raise the tax rate for homeowners in the district by a total of $0.0951 per $100 assessed property value.

The other three school districts, McDade, San Marcos, and Bastrop ISD opted not to join the ACC taxing district.

McDade, the only district that wouldn't have gotten its own campus if annexed, shot down annexation by 70 percent. San Marcos and Bastrop voted against the bill with much closer margin of about 55 percent.

In an election marked with strong anti-government, anti-taxes sentiment. ACC had a hard time convincing voters to agree to the taxes that go along with annexation.

"I wouldn't say it's a specific political climate, but in a tough economy, it's a harder sell on anything that involves a tax," said Alexis Patterson, ACC's media relations coordinator.

This semester, 272 students registered for classes at ACC that live in Elgin. In Hays, 1,007 students registered for fall 2010 classes. If any students in those two districts have already registered for their spring classes, they will be getting a refund on their tuition.

Over the Summer ACC entered into contracts to purchase about $35 million worth of land around central Texas. They are moving forward with the purchase of the land in Bastrop that would have been the ACC Lost Pines Campus. It's 87 acres of land that cost $3.19 million.

"By doing it now, we ensure that we have attractive land at the best value...It takes a lot of land to build a campus, and annexation will be revisited in Bastrop at some point," said Patterson.

For the campus that will be built in Kyle, ACC spent $9.84 million for 96 acres in late June. The land in Elgin was $3.3 million, and the college had been in an agreement for land in San Marcos, but that effort was contingent on annexation. 

2010 Election Results

Elgin ISD

*For 2,064 (60.28%)

Against 1,360 (39.72%)

Hays CISD

*For 6,879 (58.45%)

Against 4,891 (41.55%)

McDade ISD

For 147 (30.00%)

*Against 343 (70.00%)

San Marcos ISD

For 4,570     (45.08%)

*Against 5,568 (54.92%)

Bastrop ISD

For 4,750 (44.82%)

*Against 5,847 (55.18%)

Editor's Note: The Nov. 8 print edition incorrectly marked all counties "for annexation" in a side bar with this story.