The Town Tattler (Electra, Tex.), Vol. 66, No. 41, Ed. 1 Monday, October 12, 1998 Page: 1 of 4
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VOLUME 66
ELECTRA. TEXAS
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NUMBER 41
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('all Catering which is owned
by two Electra exes, John and
Carol Bishop Lloyd of
Farmersville, Texas.
Another Electra ex-student,
Mr. Ted Miles provided the
dinner music with his superb
piano work. His selection of
numbers were so well suited to
the occasion that praise of his
performance went on well
after the tables were cleared.
The after dinner speaking
chore fell to Sue Fenoglio
Allred. She had everyone
bursting with laughter for the
first half of her oration and
dedicated the last half of it to
honoring the class’s teachers
of which six were in
attendance as guests of honor
and are pictured above. After
she had voiced the opinion of
every one of the class
members, that they owed the
teachers for putting them in
good stead to begin their life’s
journey, the entire class gave
the teachers a resounding
round of applause.
After much hugging, hand
shaking, visiting and reliving
the halcyon days of youth,
everyone agreed that it should
be done again, before another
40 years had flown by.
---------------------0-----------------
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The Guest of Honor at the Class of ‘58 reunion last week
were (seated L to R) Mrs. Cogdell, Mrs. Burroughs, Mrs.
Huguelet and Mrs. Jones, (standing L to R) Mrs. Sachse and
Mrs. Blair.
weapon. Tax'em out of town.
Remember this when pay your
j high tax bill and have to shop l
> elsewhere because of it.
I have been told that the high
tax rate was because the City
had gone so far into debt that
about 40% of our tax money
went to making payments on
that debt and that the big debt
payments would run for
another 9 or 10 years.
W hile we’re on the subject of
debt, here’s some more
numbers for you. Of the 10
highest taxed towns, 50% had
0 debt. None of the lowest
taxed towns had any debt. I
could find only 12 towns that
are paying more cents per $100
for interest and sinking (debt
service) than Electra. Again, it
appears that about 90% of
Texas towns are managing
their money better than
Electra. Until someone in City
Hall learns what every one who
has ever ran a successful
business or had to live on what
they earn already knows and
that is, you can’t cover up bad
management with borrowed
money, it will only get worse. I
guess it must be easy to borrow
lots of cash if everyone in town
has to help you pay it back.
Not only does an
extraordinarily high tax rate
put a back breaking burden on
the home owners, it also pretty
well insures that no business
will want to move into Electra.
Businesses have to pay
property taxes on all their
equipment and inventory each
year. That means that a
restaurant has to pay taxes on
the stoves, tables, chairs,
refrigerators and silver ware.
A dress shop has to pay on the
clothes racks, cash register and
all the new clothes that are
hanging on the racks. Why
would anyone want to put a
business in Electra and pay the
high taxes when they could go
to one of the neighboring
towns, get the same customers
and pay less taxes.
It mav be that the crowd that
i has fought so many years to
keep any thing from coming•
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MONDAY OCTOBER 12.1998_______________
HIGH DEBT = HIGH TAXES
Class of ‘58 Holds
40th Reunion
The EHS class of 1958 got
together and celebrated being
out of high school for 40 years
during the Homecoming
weekend. It was glaringly
evident that chewing gum in
class did not have the adverse
effect that students of that
generation had been led to
believe.
The near 60 bunch sprang
lightly upon a float and
managed to win second place
in the school float division of
the parade, beaten only by the
class of ‘49 which had SO
much more experience.
A group picture was posed
on the steps of the old First
Methodist Church. It is hoped
that the sun reflecting off bald
heads and. silvered hair will
remove some of the shadows
from the wrinkles. This same
class had posed in the same
location for their 8th grade
graduation picture. Some
changes will no doubt be
noted.
Richard Martin did a bang-
up job as the MC and
reminded everyone of some of
the funny things that had
happen while this group was
struggling through school.
i An outstanding dinner was
catered for the 65 class * brightest, burns the
! members and guests bx Cattle
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--------------------O-------------------
Dare to Dream
Commit yourself to a dream.
Nobody who tries to do
something great but fails is a
total failure. Why? Because he
can always rest assured that
he succeeded in life's most
important battle - he defeated
the fear of trying.
—Robert H. Schuller
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TNRCC DLDMTED
Rep. Charles Finnell has
announced that the Texas
Natural Resources
Conservation Commission has
backed off their plan to
include the Wichita Falls area
into the DFW clean air
strategy region. Had this plan
gone into effect, it would have
meant a lot more regulation
on every thing from car
inspections to more required
equipment on automobiles
and businesses.
It seems that the TNRCC'
decided that we were the cause
of the pollution in Dallas.
Seeing as how the prevailing
winds blow from Dallas to
! Wichita County, exactly the
into Electra has found a new ' opposite is true. Luckily, the
! politicians keep up with which
way the wind is blowing. -
o------------------
EDITORIAL
gby Ted Bishop
I called the Texas
C omptrollers office
requested a list of all the towns
in Texas and what their citv
tax rates were. Boy! Did I ever
get a surprise. The list was 22
Mj pages long.
B Here’s some interesting
information that the State of
Texas has on hand concerning
city taxes. These figures are the
1997 rates as the ‘98 rates have
not all been reported to /Xustin
™ Of all the towns in Texas,
over 50% pay less than half the
—* property tax rate that Electra
does.
In 1997 Electra was number
43 in a list of 1000 sorted by
Mg the highest taxes paid. That
put us in the top 4% with a tax
rate of $.86339 per $100
valuation. Using the ‘97
numbers and factoring in the
effective ‘98 rate of $.96155,
that moves us up to number 23
Band into the top 2% of the
State.
The next time someone tells
you that the taxes are low in
Electra, you can tell them that
just the opposite is true. We
j^are one of the highest taxed
■ towns in Texas.
Every time that I bring up a
— comparison of our tax rate
^with the surrounding towns, 1
told that I am comparing
apples and oranges because of
fl the difference in populations.
Uwell, who ever thought that
answer up, doesn’t know
■a beans about apples nor
■oranges.
** The populations of the 10
HIGHEST taxed towns in
S Texas varies from 115 to
“12,840. The 10 LOWEST
taxed towns have from 194 to
fl 6959 people in them. So you
9 can see that population plays
no part in the tax rates.
A Geographical location is not a
Sfactor either as in the highest
™ taxed, it jumps around the
state from Toyah to Robstown.
I he lowest taxed includes
Jasper and Mullin.
h looks like it boils down to I
, nc thing.....management.
TO
Festival of Lights
The 2nd annual Festival of
Lights parade will be held the
evening of November 28th this
year. That is the Saturday
after Thanksgiving.
The parade last year was a
resounding success with the
floats and entrants stretching
out for a mile. The horse
riders, the motor cyclist and
the cars were all outlined with
Christmas lights. There were
floats of every description and
all the various civic
organizations were well
represented. Plans for the
parade to be even bigger this
year are underway.
Anyone or group wishing to
be a participant should
contact Carolyn Adams
495-2407.
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The Town Tattler (Electra, Tex.), Vol. 66, No. 41, Ed. 1 Monday, October 12, 1998, newspaper, October 12, 1998; Electra, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1242786/m1/1/: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Electra Public Library.