Heit’end Controls

Over the last two decades, social media has transformed how we communicate with family, friends, and strangers.  More importantly, it has transformed how candidates approach campaigning and how issues are pushed to the people including ballot propositions.  Recently a comprehensive research project published the findings of a multi-year project, led by academics from U.S. colleges and universities and working in collaboration with researchers at Meta. It focused on how critical aspects of the algorithms that determine what people see in their feeds can affect what they see and believe.

These newly published studies from the project also show that social media algorithms used by Facebook and Instagram are extremely influential in shaping users and that there is significant ideological segregation in political news exposure.  The result was algorithm adjustments made by social media platforms have been proven to alter the political news their users see and engage with.  After reading it we wondered if they should study what power Facebook Admins of “local community group pages” could have on elections.  If an admin only allows the dissemination of one side of a political perspective could that change, influence, or alter the readers’ perceptions? Could it influence a vote?   Can you guess where we are going with this question?

A little over six years ago, in Frisco, Texas resident Jamie Heit formed a Facebook group called Frisco Residents Who Cares. Today it is a very important communication tool for the residents, the city, and for Ms. Heit!   How did the group FRWC come about?  Well, Ms. Heit answered that in her post in 2023 when she wrote “I have been the admin of this group since I created it in 2016, only about 6 months after my family and I moved to Frisco in the summer of 2015. The group originated under a different name and was devoted exclusively to a singular (then political) issue: the rezoning of a parcel of land on Legacy Drive that was being eyed as the future home for an 11-acre Oncor electrical substation. The substation was a complex issue that many residents were not happy about, but through many months of respectful discussions with city leaders, many compromises on both sides, and a lot of patience and trust in the processes, a mutually agreeable solution was eventually met. As a result of seeing what being an informed, respectful and involved resident could do, I decided to keep my group going. I renamed the page what it is today and have kept it going as a place for residents to connect and to share what’s happening IN, AROUND and TO the City of Frisco.”

My wife has loved the group for many years, and we do appreciate all the hard work Ms. Heit puts into being an admin for such a large page.  We have met her before at a few city events and she was very kind and polite, and we believe she is a genuine person.  With that said this is not personal at all, but when we receive over a dozen emails from residents, we have to offer a fair assessment of their concern about the dissemination of information on her page. My wife has mentioned a few times that as politics has become more divisive, she feels that the FRWC page has implemented some “Heit’end Controls!”  The rules for the page state, “FRWC is not a platform to promote other Facebook groups, religious institutions, or political candidates.” 

While Ms. Heit likes to claim to be impartial and have a respectful stance to ensure the information shared with the community is beneficial, it often appears to be a very one-sided perspective and that is Ms. Heit’s perspective.  Residents must decide right now whether to Vote For or Against the Frisco ISD Bond & Vatre. Many residents are searching on social media to learn more about the pros and cons of the bond.  We have seen at least 10 to 20 posts supporting the Vote For PAC posted by Ms. Heit on her FRWC page.  We have yet to see, even 1 post for the Vote No position on FRWC.  Why is that? 

Ms. Heit mentions in her very first post she is in full support of the bond, why would she want anyone with an opposing view AGAINST the bond to post on her page to her 20.7K followers?  She has 100% Heit’end Control over what is disseminated to her followers.   In one article she claims she must be impartial and respectful, but the truth is, she can’t claim to be when she blocks the opposing view. She can require it to be a factual opposition and if it is she should allow for it to be posted.   

On October 21, Heit posted for anyone looking for “factual information” about the bond propositions that were unable to attend the community presentations they could watch The Frisco ISD apple podcast with Dr. Todd Fouche, Kimberely Smith and Scott Warstler.  If you don’t have a kid in the district, you may not realize this is the district’s own podcast, not an independent podcast about Frisco ISD.  Heit fails to mention in the quick snippet on her post that Fouche is the Deputy Superintendent, Kimberly Smith is the CFO, and Scott Warstler is the Chief Operations Officer for FRISCO ISD.  Obviously, the podcast will be in support of the bond 100%!

Then on Oct 22nd, Heit does a long post on FRWC about how she has seen questions and so much “MISINFORMATION” on social media today about the bond/propositions and states “I decided to post an explanation of the ballot items here as well.”  At least in this post she did ALERT residents she served on the Bond Exploration Committee for the past year with other members and ends her statement with “WHY THEY ARE NEEDED, WHAT THEY WILL ACCOMPLISH AND HOW THEY WILL IMPACT YOU.”   The “Heit’end Controls” are in action as there is no opposing view allowed to do an individual post. 

What is the most offensive about this post is her closing which states “Lastly, I am closing the comments only to prevent misinformation from being shared.  If you have questions, please feel free to DM me.”  Heit’end controls any opposition to respond, she doesn’t answer residents’ questions publicly but in private DMs, and that right here…IS NOT IMPARTIAL!  As admins of Facebook pages when you have the power to change an election you have a GREAT RESPONSIBILITY to be fair and Ms. Heit while we respect you, you are from FAIR! 

Are the “Heit’end Controls” new on FRWC – absolutely not!  In a post-dated April 13, 2023, Ms. Heit talks about the upcoming municipal and ISD contested races.  She boldly states “THIS ELECTION IS A PIVOTAL POINT IN FRISCO’S HISTORY AND IN THE FIGHT TO KEEP FRISCO ISD ONE OF THE STRONGEST SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN THE STATE.”  She goes on to say she encourages every resident to do THEIR OWN RESEARCH, and how we must remember this is non-partisan. 

She continues a few things I ask myself when looking at candidates (like we are too dumb to know what to look for) is 1. Which candidates are supported by OUTSIDE MONEYWill a candidate with OUTSIDE POLITICAL MONEY truly have the BEST INTEREST in Frisco/Frisco ISD?  Can we say, “pot calling the kettle black!” 

Ms. Heit, as a proud supporter of the bond, would you like to tell us HOW ALL THE OUTSIDE MONEY DONATED FROM SUBCONTRACTORS WHO STAND TO MAKE MILLIONS OFF THIS BOND PASSING, WHICH HAS FLOATED THE VOTE FOR FRISCO ISD PAC, is in our BEST INTEREST?  The wind is blowing in a new direction this year for Ms. Heit, and we are guessing she does not want us to ask the “best interest” question this year.

Ms. Heit’s background is in Public Relations and Marketing with an emphasis on media relations and we think she is a phenomenal marketer.  She should be very proud of her accomplishments including the most recent FRWC Community Gathering.  Ms. Heit helped small businesses, worked with locals to get people out to meet each other, and oh by the way she was also going to have Frisco ISD leadership there to present information on the upcoming bond.  Of course, not only did she get messages out online, but she took it to the people on the streets.  We received numerous emails after the event there was a clear message being presented and it again was very one-sided.

In closing, we know Ms. Heit will probably play the victim card and say that we are beating her up once we publish this article but that is not our intent.  While we truly respect and appreciate Ms. Heit, as a fellow resident, one thing is clear, Ms. Heit uses FRWC as her own personal pulpit. Heit carefully cultivates a marketing message for each post that reflects her views but sells it as an educational post for voters. She does not allow the opposition to post on her page and falls back on her rules of no politics or political posts. For example, in one of her posts from April 18, she writes “Admin Note – the following is an excerpt from the DMN article.  It is not my (FRWC admin) words nor necessarily my opinion, but that of the editorial board of the DMN.” 

Ms. Heit often posts pieces from newspaper articles that support her candidate or viewpoint. Crafted with care, she will never come out and say she is against the other candidate or viewpoint, but you will not see any posts supporting the narrative for those she opposes unless it is a negative piece. If Heit truly wanted to be impartial, she would have let both sides present and show her support in the comments for the position or candidate as a resident. 

Another example was in 2021 when Ms. Heit did a post for a political candidate forum, and she tagged 4 others. The post starts off looking like a forum announcement. She talks about how Frisco has low voter turnout and encourages everyone to talk to the candidates all the while knowing they won’t. Heit’s support is clear by the tags and her last line I am more than happy to talk with anyone about who I support. If this was universal, why not tag all the candidates? During the election cycle, you didn’t see any posts on the FRWC Facebook page supporting candidates who were not tagged in her post. They may have been supportive in the comments but not individual posts.

Instead, she uses her position as the ADMIN to gain trust knowing her position does and will have influencing the vote.  Just look at her post on Frisco ISD Parents where she starts the post with “Many of you may know that I am the admin for a Frisco Community Facebook group called Frisco Residents Who Cares.”  Her statement is very calculated and said at the opening to gain immediate reader’s trust.  She then promotes her community gathering not mentioning that the ISD board will be there but as soon as you as click the link to her “event” you will learn that.

What is our point?  The “Heit’end Controls” on FRWC’s Facebook page are not impartial or a free flow of informative information. The fact is, FRWC is her page, and Heit can do, post, accept, and deny anyone or anything she wants.  All we are asking for is transparency from Ms. Heit. Be clear and honest to the public that it is a page that supports her and her like-minded friends’ opinions and views and acknowledges that she markets it to others exceptionally well.  We all as a community have to realize words are powerful. When you have control of a page with 20+ followers and want to claim to be impartial then be impartial!  If you want to offer your view and only your view, then do so.  Shutting off comments so that residents can’t speak or question you when your rules read, “Let’s try and make this a safe, informative, and welcoming place for residents to come to on social media. Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem” is a huge problem.  You said in 2023 to residents “Do your own research” but now you are preventing that ability by not letting both perspectives be heard and communicating on the largest community forum we have in Frisco.  

Follow The Money!

Some of the world’s biggest titans have fallen from grace because someone took the time to simply follow the money.  If voters knew how to follow the money it would be a game changer in helping them decide how to vote.  However, voters lack understanding and confidence in numbers and finance, so they follow the leaders on social media who tell them how to vote.  While we normally don’t pay attention to Frisco ISD, when you ask for a 1-billion-dollar bond that does perk our interest.  As we have said before curiosity kills and we were curious about who is behind the PACs in this Frisco ISD Bond election.

We are starting with the Vote For Frisco ISD PAC whose campaign treasure is listed as John Hoxie. What we found should shock you!  The “TOTAL POLITCAL CONTRIBUTIONS” is listed as $116,929.00.  It lists the PAC’s “TOTAL EXPENDITURES” as $46,483.55.  As of the last day of reporting the “TOTAL POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS MAINTAINED” was $115,486.80.  That is a lot of money, so where did it all come from?  We started combing through the reports on the state website and then compared them to the Check Registers listed on the district’s website.

Now before you say we may be “barking up the wrong tree” I bet if we were to ask the Vote For PAC how they raised over 100,000 dollars so quickly, they would not offer up the tricks they have up their sleeve.  Instead, I am guessing the response would be “It ain’t about the money, but it is about the principle of why they donated!”  That means it is about the money, and they just don’t want to spill the beans and answer the question.

We immediately noticed that 95% of the donors are companies and all but one are outside of Frisco. Our first thought was that this is a repeat of the May 2024 elections when the city went to its “BIG DEVELOPERS” and pushed them to donate/fund the Vote No PAC against the Frisco Firefighters.  We looked up each company and determined they were all direct providers or subcontractors for commercial general construction companies.  It made us wonder, who is the biggest provider of general construction to the district and here is what we found:

Core Construction: $306,297,212.88

Joeris General Construction: $73,671,804.65

Crossland Construction: 45,569,957.31

Lee Lewis Construction: $39,688,799.95

Corgan Assoc: $18,591,228.20

Hellas Construction: $11,585,144.34

Then we started researching the individual donors to the Vote For Frisco ISD PAC! We pulled up the check registers from 2018 (the time of the last bond) to 2024 and made our own spreadsheet comparing the year-over-year spend with different vendors. We also checked to see if any of them were on the Frisco ISD payroll.

RLK Engineering in Allen donated $10,000, and they specialize in civil engineering consulting.  That is the least they could do when the school district has spent $197,879.57 with them over the last few years.

Acoustics & Drywall in Carrolton donated $5000.  Who is that?  The actual name of the company is Lasco ADI and according to their website they worked for the General Contractor Core Construction on Panther Creek High School.  The website also shows a the logo for Corgan & Associates.

Armko Industries in Flower Mound donated $5000. They are an Engineering Firm with Architects and Building Envelope Consultants on staff.  They specialize in the building envelope which comprises the roof and exterior walls. Armko is on the districts payroll as well, and since 2018, Frisco ISD has paid them $1,709,038.83.  If your meal ticket calls, asking you to fund the Vote For PAC that is probably a good idea when you are banking in return.

Basden Steel in Burleson donated $5000.  They are a certified steel fabrication and erection company.  On their website it shows the Frisco Public Library as one of the many projects they worked on. 

CT Excavating in Greenville donated $500. They don’t have a very lengthy website.

Cooper Excavation in Lewisville donated $1000.  They have no website we could find and also have another name C-Con Services, Inc. 

DMG Masonry in Arlington donated $5000. While they have a website it is very basic so we can only assume they too are a subcontractor for the FISD project.

EMA Engineering & Consulting, Inc donated $20,000. They provide MEP and technology design and consulting services to architects and building owners. 

Foodservice Design Professionals in The Woodlands donated $10,000.  The design state of the art food cafeterias. Not like a little old Luby’s from my day!

Greater Metroplex Interiors (GMI) in Southlake donated $5000.  According to their website they are a facility construction for essential infrastructure projects.

Hawk Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning in Fort Worth donated $3000. 

J&E Companies in Grand Prairie donated $5000.  They are a masonry, drywall, acoustical, plaster/stucco specialty subcontractor.

John Cook & Associates in Dallas donated $3333.00.  They offer HVAC solutions.

Miller Sierra Contractors in Euless donated $5000.  They are a commercial concrete company.

One Source Building Services in Plano donated $2500.  They perform commercial construction services. One Source Commercial Flooring in Plano donated $5000.  They appear to be in the same location.

Precision Demolition in Lewisville donated $2000.

Progressive Services in Phoenix, Arizona donated $5000.

Redden Concrete in Melissa donated $1000, and they are a commercial concrete contractor.

Signature Casework in Dallas donated $2500, and their website was not working.

Ramsey Landscape Architects in Frisco donated $5000.

Sizelove Construction in Euless donated $5000, and they are a leading concrete subcontractor.

Vaden’s Acoustics & Drywall in Fort Worth donated $5000, and we could not access their website.

Webb Builders Hardware in Dallas donated $1000.

Wildstone Construction in Fort Worth, Texas donated $1500.

WHAT DID WE LEARN?  We have filed a PIR with the Frisco ISD to find out if these companies are subcontractors to any of the general commercial construction companies that they have paid out over $500 Million to over the last few years.  It is clear some of them are directly on Frisco ISD’s payroll which left us with a few questions:

  1. Who in the Vote For Pac is so popular that they know someone at each of these companies and called them up and asked them to donate to a PAC that would support Frisco ISD at the end of the day?
  2. If Frisco ISD made contact with these companies or their general contractors asking for help to fund the Vote For PAC then could that or would that be electioneering?
  3. It seems random that several subcontractors with no direct link to Frisco ISD felt the need to donate out of nowhere, and out of the goodness of their little kind hearts, to a district it has no affiliation to, right? If the PAC expects us to believe that, then they think we are dumber than elephant dung. The only reason these companies would donate is if they were asked to by one of the major companies they subcontract for.
  4. Is anyone else questioning how this PAC got funded so fast?

Voltaire, one said, “When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.”  In this case, that seems to be on point! Something underhanded and possibly crossing the line of ethical or even legal happened which funded this PAC. There are some hands in some serious cookie jars on this one!

FISD: Mindful Spending

Where does a school district’s money come from?  School funding is largely in the hands of states. The primary job of the state finance system should be to account for differences between the districts in the cost of providing the right educational quality level, and then to distribute the funds.  About 30 years ago the Texas Supreme Court ordered the Texas Legislature to fix the state’s unequal school funding system.  The fix by lawmakers is often called the “Robin Hood” recapture plan.   In 2023, three school districts voted to stop paying the recapture money to the state and two of those districts are here in North Texas.  Carroll ISD and Keller ISD led the way and if other districts followed it would force the legislature to look at more options. If you received one of the recent postcards, they sure look misleading!

So, what is the funding system?  According to a 2019 Texas Tribune article, “Texas guarantees every school district a certain amount of funding for each student. State lawmakers determine the base number per student, which is currently $5,140. Many educators argue that the state should regularly increase that base number, at least with inflation, to get all schools the money they need. But the amount has not changed in four years.”  What many Texans don’t realize is that Texas consistently ranks in the bottom 10 to 12 states for education spending per student.  According to an article by Texas Standard, Texas hasn’t increased school funding since 2019.  It goes on to say to keep up with inflation over the last four years, state lawmakers would need to add almost $1200 per student. Two North Texas districts, Carroll ISD and Keller ISD, led the way and if other districts followed it would force the legislature to look at more options.

Remember when we were told if we approved the Texas Lotto, it would support education, where is all the money from the profits of these scratch-offs and power ball drawings?  The truth is only 7% of the funding by the state for the state’s public school system comes from the Texas Lotto. However, the Texas Lottery is a better wordsmith to perfume the pig. The Texas Lotto website reads, “The Texas Lottery Supports Texas Education. Since 1997, the Texas Lottery has contributed $33.9 billion to the Foundation School Fund, which supports public education in Texas.”

While funding is an important part of the discussion so are the spending habits of some of these districts.  How did our school district choose to spend their money?  Are the funds being distributed properly?  Are they spending based on a well-thought-out budget?  We decided to investigate the spending habits via the Frisco ISD Check Registers on the district’s website. The district has 4 funds: The General Fund, Child Nutrition, Debt Service, and Capital Projects.   We started with the General Fund!

$$ Legal Services: In 2024, Frisco ISD paid Abernathy Law $40,851.93, in 2023 they paid $85,913.58.  We are curious, would it be a conflict of interest if the same law firm represented both the city and the School District?  Was the legal advice received around these “Public-Private Partnerships” that are sold to residents as success ventures. 

$$ Legal Services: In 2024, Frisco ISD paid Walsh Gallegos Kyle another law firm $411,336.57 and in 2023, $353,028.02.   Why does the district have two different law firms?  What kind of legal services is the district needing?

$$ Amazon: In 2024, the district spent $2,271,090.30 on “MISC SUPPLIES.”  That is slightly higher than the 2023 spend, which was $2,047,880.  That is a lot of Amazon!

$$ Dallas Physician Medical Services for Children:  In 2022, the district opened a medical clinic to provide FISD employees with free access to health and wellness.  As we know nothing is free!  In 2024 the district paid DPMSC $470,000 dollars, and in 2023 the district spent $472,000 dollars.   We are curious why they would partner with a medical service for children – when it is supposed to be for adult employees. 

$$ Blue Star Frisco EV:  In 2024, $457,915.28 for “Rentals”, in 2023 the district paid 359,028 dollars.  When the public-private partnership was announced for The Frisco Star residents were led to believe this was a good deal for the school district as they would have use of the facilities.  The city website reads “It houses Frisco ISD events such as football games, soccer games, marching band competitions, commencement exercises, and other similar events.”  Everyone failed to mention how much the district would pay for it each year on top of what the district paid for in the original agreement.

$$ City of Frisco (Contracted Services):  In 2024, the district paid the city $2,361,742.00 and back in 2023, they paid $2,135,134.56 dollars.  What contracted services cost that much?

$$ City of Frisco/Park (FISD Debt Payment): In 2024, the district paid $4,511,073.80 and back in 2023 they paid $5,678,818.38.   What is the district getting back from that? 

$$ Hilltop Holdings (Yearly Investment): In 2024, the district paid Hilltop Holdings $63,301 and in 2023 it was $81,017.98.  What is the yearly investment for? 

$$ GCS Trails of Frisco (Contracted Services):  Par for the course the city is paying for the use of the facilities for GOLF!  In 2024, the district paid $61,555.85 and then in 2023 they paid $54,893.94.  I thought the whole point of the PGA partnership was to have “USE OF THE FACILITIES” so why are we paying to rent facilities.

$$ Population & Survey (Demographics Survey): The most interesting expense was the 2024 payment for $115,700 for a survey.  Then we noticed in 2023 they paid $113,450.00 for another survey.  Why? For What?  We plan to file a PIR for the information.

The district’s website reads “OUR MISSION is to know every student by name and need.”  At Frisco Whistleblower our mission is to understand how the district spends its money and the need to ask us for more Bonds = More Taxes!  There were many more payments in the 2024 and 2023 General Fund Report that some may question.  While we wanted to highlight a few, we are still left with the question of what the point of the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ). If all we are doing is paying out on them then how are they beneficial? What are we getting back from these TIRZ if we now have to go and ask residents for another $1 Billion dollars?  Next up we will look at the 22/23/24 Capital Fund spending.  Until then, you can review the Financial Reports on the district’s website.  Lastly, look over the check registers as you might find some interesting things like we did.

$1 Billion Dollars

Frisco ISD has proposed a new 2024 Bond Vatre which the district and the so called “Vote For Frisco ISD PAC” are pushing hard for.  They want us to vote on four (4) propositions that they claim will fund important projects.  What is a VATRE?  A VATRE is triggered when a board adopts a tax rate that exceeds the district’s voter-approval tax rate (VATR). The VATR is determined for each district by a statutory formula and is the highest tax rate a board can adopt without holding an election. A district’s adopted tax rate has two components: its debt service rate or its interest and sinking (I&S) rate, and its maintenance and operations (M&O) rate.

While a bond election authorizes the issuance of bonds to generate funds for a district’s buildings and infrastructure and to be repaid from I&S revenue, a VATRE approves an increase in the district’s M&O tax rate, which can only be used for items related to programs and people, such as teacher salaries and stipends, training programs, educational programs, and other student activities, such as extracurricular programs.  Confused yet? 

The school district and the Vote For PAC are selling it to you on the basis that the priority has shifted from building new schools to maintaining the district’s existing facilities.  A key piece of the proposed bond is refreshing aging schools and the supposedly includes a refresh for 20 Frisco ISD campuses that are 25 years old. The VATER portion according to the district’s website is needed to increase teacher pay and be more competitive.   The district claims this will affect every campus, but they promised similar things in the 2018 bond, and we question if the money was used as they promised. Now they are back, asking us to trust them again but remember they DO NOT HAVE TO USE IT FOR THE REASONS THEY ARE ASKING FOR NOW.  That means you can vote for it and then they can change how they or what they use the money for just like they did in 2018.

Getting the information out to the public about the upcoming propositions is not cheap.  In fact, principals and the district are trying every avenue possible to get the information out, from using the PTA’s to hold informational sessions to ADVERTISING!  Community Impact is one of the largest community papers for Frisco and for a long time we have thought they are in bed with Frisco political powers.  We have never seen them write a hard-hitting story or an investigative story, instead most of the articles are “watered down” informational pieces.  We have always had one burning question when it comes to Community Impact, how much does it cost to advertise during campaign season.  I mean we know Jeff Cheney can afford it because he always owns the back cover for his business – but at what cost?

We started looking into these questions awhile back and set what we had found to the side until we saw a post on social media asking, “How much did Frisco ISD pay for the four-color glossy sticky notes located front and center in the recent Community Impact?”   The paper has several different avenues of advertising such as an insert, sticky notes, direct mail postcards, online presence, and in-paper display ads.  If our research is right, we can tell you! 

We were sent a copy of their Frisco Elections Advertising PDF and according to the document, Community Impact goes out to 85,264 mailboxes in Frisco and their online presence in Frisco hits about 10,176 daily subscribers.  Not bad coverage for a city with voter apathy! You can also bet they are working their inside connections in the Desis community as they alone can decide this vote.

Drum Roll Please…… Sticky Notes cost $0.15 each!  If the district did 85,264 sticky notes to the Frisco readers, then the district spent $12,789.60 for one paper.  Additionally, inserts are $0.15 each, sticky/insert combo is $0.25/set, and direct mail postcards are $0.26 each.  If they decided to use the website ads on communityimpact.com it would cost $300/month per market for 30 days.  If they choose to advertise via the morning impact email newsletter that goes out to 10,176 subscribers, it will cost $500 for the top of the newsletter and $450 for the middle of the newsletter.

We have a lot of questions:

Should the district be paying $13k for advertising when there is a Vote For PAC who has organized?  

Are they advertising clearly, correctly and honestly?  For example, on the districts website it reads “100% of bond funds stay in the district and is not subject to recapture by the state.”  Will it really stay “IN THE DISTRICT” such as our schools and facilities, or will any of it (even $1 dollar) go to one of the public-private partnerships they have?  You might have heard the City of Frisco approved a $182 million renovation for Toyota Stadium, but did you know Frisco ISD pays part of that bill?  The recent headlines don’t alert you that the ISD is paying part of that BIG BILL!  

That is right, $77 million of the $182 million comes from the public-private partnership TIRZ for the City of Frisco and Frisco ISD.  They just did stadium improvements in 2016 for Toyota Stadium.  I thought the point of all these public-private partnerships was to make money not just spending it.  They also have a TIRZ / public-private partnership for the PGA Golf Course, Ford Center, Expansion of Dr. Pepper Arena, etc.  Read more about it on their website.

While they are claiming 100% of the bonds are staying in the district, they are not telling you the VATRE is subject to recapture.  According to Community Impact, “the new tax rate would generate an additional $11.5 million in revenue for the district. In total, the increase would generate $19.5 million in revenue, but $8 million would go to the state in recapture.”   But they are not advertising that, are they?   FISD voters last approved raising the M&O portion of the tax rate by $0.13 per $100 valuation in 2018.

We are just diving into the ISD stuff but as of right now we are not sold on voting for this bond/vatre.  Just a few concerns include, we question if Waldrip the Super Intendent is the right might to lead the district as the last city he was in didn’t want him.  We also don’t trust the school board President who has a history of personal financial problems to oversee tax dollars.  We also don’t believe Frisco ISD is being  smart, transparent or effective with the money they have now and we are unsure if throwing more money in the pot is the best solution.  Last but not least our ISD needs to explain if any of this money will ever be used for public-private partnerships because if it will that makes it a no for us!

We will be back as we keep diving into this!