BSISD board approves lower tax rate than 2021-22, but high enough to trigger election
A tax increase that's lower than this year's rate? That's what the Big Spring ISD is looking at for 202223.
BSISD Chief Financial Officer Susan Bryan laid out the situation for the school board trustees during their meeting Thursday evening.
“We're proposing an M&O (Maintenance and Operations) tax rate $0.8846 per $100 market value, and then for I&S (Interest and Sinking), a $0.0763 per $100,” Bryan said, noting that the combined proposed rate is $0.9609 per $100 valuation. “I assume that you all will be confused, because it says that we're increasing the tax rate, which is not what I've been telling you. I have a summary of what we're proposing, the rates I just said, and last year's rates. Last year's rate equals $1.016, so it's a change, a decrease of $0.0551. That's what we're proposing – the difference.”
Bryan explained that the Texas Education Agency determined that the base starting rate the district uses to calculate its tax rate is $0.8046 cents per $100. Above that amount, the district is allowed by state funding rules to spend “Golden Pennies,” each of which increases the tax rate by one cent per $100. Revenue earned through the Golden Pennies is not subject to recapture by the state, and is available for use by the district.
“I get to add in five Golden Pennies, recapture free,” Bryan said. “That gets us to $0.8546. Then, we have to add in our I&S tax rate, which is being proposed at $0.0763, so the Voter Approval Rate that was in the notice, was $0.9309. But if you look at the top, I'm proposing $0.9609, which is three pennies more.”
Bryan said since the proposed tax rate is higher than the Voter Approval tax rate, a Voter Approval Election is automatically triggered. That election will take place November 8.
Bryan said that the district's No-new Revenue rate – the rate which should bring in exactly the same amount of revenue as the district earned
this year – is $0.729981 per $100.
“As you can see, these rates are much lower than our proposed tax rate,” Bryan said. “So that is why the motion language says that we're increasing taxes. It's not comparing our tax rate from last year to this year. It's comparing it with this No New Revenue rate.”
The reason for the discrepancy is that the value of local property has increased dramatically. When property values increase, the tax rate required to generate the same revenue decreases proportionally.
“Basically, that rate of $0.729, that is, what would it take to generate what we had last year?” Superitnendent Jay Mcwilliams said. “That's not a fair comparison, because this year, our values went up a billion dollars. We're bringing in a whole lot more money than we did last year. So yeah, that number's going to go down. But that is not your tax rate. Your tax rate, for the fifth year in a row, is going down. Even with the Golden Pennies. If you look at what it was last year, if this passes, it's still less than what it was last year. It's less than a dollar. It's $0.96 and some change.”
The school board unanimously approved the rate.
The board also unanimously approved the district's budget for the 2022-23 school year. The total budget is $52,157,905, an increase of $5,773,954 – or about 12.52 percent – over last year's total of $46,383,951.
A budget summary can be found on the district's website at www.bsisd. esc18.net under “About BSISD” and then “Election, Budget, Financial, and other Public Notices.” The proposed budget is at the bottom of the list under “Budget Notices.”
The following list shows comparisons between major divisions in the 2021-22 and the 2022-23 budgets:
2021-22 2022-23
• Instruction: $21,407,645 $21,688,237
• Instructional Support: $6,481,656 $6,558,397
• Central Administration: $1,122,290 $1,226,239
• District Operations: $11,503,714 $12,711,182
• Debt Service: $3,633,216 $3,337,850
• Other : $2,200,400 $6,635,000
• Total: $46,353,921 $52,156,905
According to Bryan, the large increase in the “Other” budget comes from the State's “Robin Hood” revenue recapture program, where wealthy school districts are required to refund part of their revenue to the state through one of several different means. BSISD has opted to purchase attendance credits to make up the excess.
In other business, the trustees held two public hearings, one on the budget and tax rate, and the other to discuss the status of the district's use of Elementary
and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds provided by the Texas Education Agency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. No members of the public spoke at either hearing.
The board approved an agreement with Crossroads Housing Development Corp. to create a program where BSISD students will get hands-on learing in construction trades, by renovating homes Crossroads owns and makes available to its clients.
The board re-approved its Code of Ethics for Board of Trustees, an routine annual task. According to Mcwilliams, no changes have been made to the Code except to change the dates and update the names of board members.
Board President Fabian Serrano – who was absent from the meeting – was appointed as a delegate to the Texas Association of School Boards upcoming Delegate Assembly.
The board renewed its agreement with Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service to provide adjunct faculty while students are attending events at the Agrilife offices. The point of the agreement is to allow absences while students are attending the programs to be considered authorized extra-curricular activities.”
The board also:
• Approved a donation of $1,400 from the Marcy Elementary Parent/teacher Organization to the Marcy Elementary School Student Activity Accounty.
• Approved both a resolution to, and also action to, enter into an interlocal agreement with the Education Service Center for Region 5 – Southeast Texas Purchasing Cooperative for cooperative purchasing services.
• Ordered a Voter Approval Tax Rate election, since the proposed tax rate exeeds the Voter Approval Tax Rate. The election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 8, in conjunction with the General Election.
• Ordered another special election, also on Nov. 8, to authorize the board to purchase attendance credits from the state.
• Approved a Standard Form Owner/contractor Agreement with Western Building Specialties Inc. of Lubbock for contractor services for the district's planned door repair and replacement project, and assigned collateral for the project.
• Approved a resolution identifying Hazardous Traffic Conditions as required by TEA in accordance with Board Policy CNA(LOCAL). The resolution designates the intersection of FM700 and U.S. 87 as a dangerous intersection, which nets additional state funding for schools within two miles of the intersection.
• Approved of the 2022-23 BSISD Payment Percentage of 1.86 percent for the Community Eligibility Provision Schedule. Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is the program which allows BSISD to provide free breakfast and lunch to the district's Junior High students. All of the district's students will qualify for free lunches through a combination of CEP and other programs.
• Approved of the Student Code of Conduct for 2022-23.