No one addresses OC board hearing
- When: 5:30 p.m. Aug. 18.
- Where: OC Administration Building conference room.
Odessa College trustees ate lunch Monday while waiting for someone to address them about the school’s proposed tax rate for fiscal year 2011-12. But, after waiting for nearly a half hour, Board President David Turner adjourned the meeting when no one spoke.
Residents will get another chance to address the Odessa College tax rate at a hearing Thursday. The board will have a final vote at its regular monthly meeting on Aug. 30.
While OC’s maintenance and operations tax rate will remain 15.84 cents per $100 property tax valuation, the debt service rate will be 3.86 cents, the result of a $68.5 million bond package Ector County voters passed in November, if the board passes the proposed rates.
Owners of an average home in Ector County can expect to pay about $38.30 more in the coming fiscal year than they have in 2010-11, with all but about $8 of that a result of the bond package, which will bring several new buildings to the OC campus and renovate others during the next few years.
Last month, the board approved a $36.6 million operating budget for the coming year. Despite a 16-percent cut in state funding, the budget is $1 million more than the 2010-11 fiscal year budget. The school is raising tuition by 20 percent and has been helped by a 6.5-percent increase in tax valuations in Ector County.
