Tonight, the Decatur City Commission will hear a motion (pdf) to defer a vote on annexation until 2011.

While this announcement caught us all off-guard last week, in my opinion, it didn’t come as a total surprise.

Without any solid data on student enrollment figures, the city commission had little choice to defer the motion.  There were many other valid reasons given in the City Manager’s note to the commission on why to wait, and we heard many personal concerns from residents in the annex areas about an increase in taxes and whatnot.  But at the end of the day, the real issue surrounding this yearlong marathon issue was that no one ever provided any revised data that showed the monetary benefits of annexation given the cost of taking on additional students.

The city and all of its residents owe Judd Owen and Pat Herold a hardy “Thanks!” for catching the inconsistencies embedded in Rosser’s student enrollment figures and bringing them to light in a methodical and level-headed way.