• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Texas' High-school Football Obsession and half million dollar sign

James Burke

Being a grandpa is more fun than working
I do work for a large college, whenever they have a project like this they get alumni to pay for it.

Exactly! Schools, colleges, libraries, hospitals and churches are on our short list for such projects. See my thread just above this.


JB
 

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
Its all bs. Not much different than cities giving huge tax dollars to build stadiums and tax breaks to draw in companies. It never pays off even though its sold that way. Really, its all to feed the egos of these elected people and finance their hobonobbing with big shots. Fiscal conservatism died off with the dinosaurs but many still try to play one on stage.
What's worse is they hurry building those stadiums, to get BONUSES for early finish, then they start crumbling before they even open for use. Has happened TWICE! Allen and then McKinney.
 

BobM

New Member
Its all bs. Not much different than cities giving huge tax dollars to build stadiums and tax breaks to draw in companies. It never pays off even though its sold that way. Really, its all to feed the egos of these elected people and finance their hobonobbing with big shots. Fiscal conservatism died off with the dinosaurs but many still try to play one on stage.

Is That $1.67 per 1,000 valuation not per $100 valuation????? Just asking.
 

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
Is That $1.67 per 1,000 valuation not per $100 valuation????? Just asking.

per $100. tax on house is roughly 2-3% per year... Oh and t
THEY decide what your value is.

I built my lil sign shop behind my old house a few years ago... a month after it was done they were out there snapping pictures of it and raised my value.
 

Johnny Best

Active Member
It is a nice scoreboard sign, does it have advertising on the other side. Taxes and death, you cannot avoid either one.
 

TimToad

Active Member
I am here is Texas also and I try to charge the school districts I deal with as much as I can to make back all my taxes back.

I'm assuming you were joking, but with an attitude and business practices like that, it shouldn't be too difficult why the need for higher and higher taxes are needed. A school district or government agency isn't some golden goose to be fleeced at every opportunity out of some twisted sense of revenge.

I think that's the kind of counterproductive thinking where we get $5,000 hammers in the military and various other bloated financial shenanigans.

We are one of the exclusive sign vendors for our school district and the various department heads have been instructed to try and work with us whenever possible because of our track record of fairness, perceived value, reliability and high quality. No premium is applied to our just because our tax dollars are used to operate.

As a person who is both a fierce defender of maximizing educational opportunities and childless by choice, I'm happy to pay my fair share to make sure our future workforce and citizenry are prepared for the challenges that life presents.
 

TimToad

Active Member
per $100. tax on house is roughly 2-3% per year... Oh and t
THEY decide what your value is.

I built my lil sign shop behind my old house a few years ago... a month after it was done they were out there snapping pictures of it and raised my value.

So on a $200,000 valuation, you're looking at $3,350.00 in property taxes.

I would hope the assessor sets the value, otherwise everybody would just say their homes aren't worth anything. I'm sure the inspectors who finalled the shop plugged their information into the county database for land improvements.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
I'm assuming you were joking, but with an attitude and business practices like that, it shouldn't be too difficult why the need for higher and higher taxes are needed. A school district or government agency isn't some golden goose to be fleeced at every opportunity out of some twisted sense of revenge.

I think that's the kind of counterproductive thinking where we get $5,000 hammers in the military and various other bloated financial shenanigans.

We are one of the exclusive sign vendors for our school district and the various department heads have been instructed to try and work with us whenever possible because of our track record of fairness, perceived value, reliability and high quality. No premium is applied to our just because our tax dollars are used to operate.

As a person who is both a fierce defender of maximizing educational opportunities and childless by choice, I'm happy to pay my fair share to make sure our future workforce and citizenry are prepared for the challenges that life presents.


That's just a drop in the bucket as to why things cost so much. Leaving the government out of it.....

  • Why do schools need marble hallways ??
  • Why do they need huge elaborate chandeliers ??
  • Why do they need 2,700 vehicles (and the drivers and the fuel, insurance and upkeep) to transport kids who are completely capable of walking ??
  • Why do they not put more money into the actual learning and not the aesthetics of a frickin' building ??
We're not exclusive, but we do 3 or 4 colleges in our vicinity and a buncha school districts and they keep coming back. No school system or other agency is gonna base a track record from 4 years of being in business. We invite them to bid out the jobs.... it keeps everyone honest.

We have learning centers in which we've been doing work for 35 or more years. That's a track record. Usually, we do the municipal, emergency and police vehicles in those same boroughs or townships.
 

Johnny Best

Active Member
I pay property taxes on two homes in two states. Sent my four children through the public school system. Never got upset over paying taxes because I know there is not much I can do about that unless I want to run for office and that would never happen. The one house I have owned for almost 50 years and can only raise my property tax 10% a year. And the other one they cannot raise at all because I am over 68. Some states have the lottery to give to education so these school districts hire superintendents with a large salary. Most school board members are elected officials. This might not be true for all school districts but just what I have been involved with.
So to get a large sign worth a lot of money probably is in someone's area that has some voting power. Just like all government jobs are accomplished. I think the term "pork barrel" is use in this case. There are always investigations into school board's spending in the news, it is part of politics.
But I will say this, if you send your kids to public schools, be ready to educate them on your own because the schools are more worried about test scores so as to get more federal money to put into their coffers.

And I bet a pretty penny that some school board member knew someone in the sign business to give that expensive sign job to that Tex showed. Just like Toad has an in with the school system in his area because of his exceptional sign work.
 

TimToad

Active Member
That's just a drop in the bucket as to why things cost so much. Leaving the government out of it.....

  • Why do schools need marble hallways ??
  • Why do they need huge elaborate chandeliers ??
  • Why do they need 2,700 vehicles (and the drivers and the fuel, insurance and upkeep) to transport kids who are completely capable of walking ??
  • Why do they not put more money into the actual learning and not the aesthetics of a frickin' building ??
We're not exclusive, but we do 3 or 4 colleges in our vicinity and a buncha school districts and they keep coming back. No school system or other agency is gonna base a track record from 4 years of being in business. We invite them to bid out the jobs.... it keeps everyone honest.

We have learning centers in which we've been doing work for 35 or more years. That's a track record. Usually, we do the municipal, emergency and police vehicles in those same boroughs or townships.

Been in a lot of schools and have never seen marble floors in a one of them. That would be a slip hazard and probably hard to maintain. I'm sure some schools in high rent districts opt for the highest durability materials they can afford. Public buildings are required to both be energy efficient to the highest degree but also built with an emphasis on durability and ease of maintenance.

I've also never seen huge elaborate chandeliers in a single school. High efficiency compact flourescent and LED lighting seems to be the standard these days.

Maybe our local authorities don't care as much about how long somebody has been in business as much as they care about the end results and whether or not someone always comes in with the best bid on the best quality product. Being in business in one location doesn't negate the decades of experience working in other places.

Yeah, we do most of the municipal sign work and vehicles for our government as well. Seems like you want to toot your own longevity but discount someone being good enough to build the same kind of reputation.
 

Johnny Best

Active Member
Au contraire, Hibbing high school in Minnesota, google it, has marble finishes, frescoes on the walls and chandeliers!
Maybe Reading PA has something like that.
And also, you mean Toad is going to be like Gino with his sign business in a couple of years!
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Here ya go, again. I'll bite.

I didn't say floors, did I ?? Again, like you did with someone just a bit ago, you aSSumed.
Many of the schools around here have chandeliers and I'm only talking about PUBLIC schools,. not private or even parochial schools.
As for the local authorities, I was talking business in general. Most people don't have a track record after 4 years. Cripes, the norm is..... see if ya can make it 5 years, let alone tell people.... I've been doing this for a number of years, but kept moving around cause I hadda find myself, but I'm good, now.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

unclebun

Active Member
Well it actually looks like it pays for itself with money to put back into the kids and school. So it was a great idea except for the people who live around the football field when it is lit up for games and turns night into day.

Actually look at the letter the superintendent linked at the bottom of the page on the left. A single individual fronted the money for it to get it put up faster, but it was the booster club that was going to raise the funds for it from private donations. Now the single individual is being paid back by the advertising they put on the screen, but even if it is not sufficient, the school district is off the hook for the payments.

So, no tax money involved.
 

equippaint

Active Member
Actually look at the letter the superintendent linked at the bottom of the page on the left. A single individual fronted the money for it to get it put up faster, but it was the booster club that was going to raise the funds for it from private donations. Now the single individual is being paid back by the advertising they put on the screen, but even if it is not sufficient, the school district is off the hook for the payments.

So, no tax money involved.
I'm personally not a fan of any of this whether its tax money used or someone trying to make money with a trojan horse. Its very similar to red light cameras where private companies collect a chunk of the fines to finance their investment. If youre going to give money to the schools, give it to education. 500k would go a long way to help start a trade program at a high school.

Gino: I worked at the local school district a long time ago, I can assure you that on the lower level they are the biggest penny pinchers I have ever worked with. The problems come in at the elected level and their decisions are out of the control of the people that run the day to day.
 

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
Actually look at the letter the superintendent linked at the bottom of the page on the left. A single individual fronted the money for it to get it put up faster, but it was the booster club that was going to raise the funds for it from private donations. Now the single individual is being paid back by the advertising they put on the screen, but even if it is not sufficient, the school district is off the hook for the payments.

So, no tax money involved.

So this thread might be .......... fake news!?
 
Top