By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

After the city of Hays declined in January to place a sales tax on a city election ballot as requested by Hays USD 489 in conjunction with its $94 million bond issue, a petition by more than 1,600 voters was certified March 9 by Ellis County Clerk Donna Maskus.

Now, according to state statute, the city must “call an election for a special date or the next Primary or General election in which the city is a participant,” City Attorney John Bird explained during Thursday night’s commission work session.

“The timing of the election is a decision to be made by the city commission. You don’t have an option; you must set an election date. The petitioners (the school district) decide the wording” of the ballot, Bird added.

Volunteers Chris Dinkel and Mike Morley, are serving on the USD 489 Bond Committee. The men told commissioners “there is significant community support behind this capital improvement project” and they hope to have a June 7 special election.

“The Hays Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Board supports having the bond issue and a sales tax question together, hopefully on June 7,” Morley reported.

“Waiting for an election the city is involved in could this back to November 2017,” said Mayor Eber Phelps, “and I think that’s a little too long to wait.”

The other three commissioners agreed there was “no reason to delay it,” although Commissioner James Meier reiterated he “still thinks it’s a bad idea.” Commissioner Henry Schwaller was absent.

Part of the reason for the June 7 target date instead of the November general election was to “head off a lot of the noise,” said Dinkel. “This is going to be a fairly noisy national election. If we want to be heard in community speaking events–in any sort of public education effort–we’re going to have to beat the big push in Sept., Oct., Nov.”

“Pushing the local election back a whole year more, we’re looking at inflation of costs and would have to go back to the drawing board of some things,” Dinkel added.

“I think the intent is looking at the backlog of deferred maintenance that exists today,” Morley said.

“That backlog grows.  It’s accruing at a rate of about $500,000  to $700,000 a year from where we are now, not to mention the uncertainty of interest,” Morley told commissioners.

“If I were to divine what the school board’s intent is,  it’s probably looking at–in terms of the size of this bond–if they were to issue it sooner, that’s better in terms of borrow costs and in getting on with a three-year project, starting to knock some of this deferred maintenance out.”

The Hays school board is scheduled to vote at its Monday, March 21 meeting to adopt a resolution for a June 7, 2016, bond issue election.