November 11, 2011
Hutto, Dripping Springs districts left in lurch by property tax votes - Austin American-Statesman
Districts grapple with state budget cuts, but next year expected to be worse
By Kate Alexander and Melissa B. Taboada
Two Central Texas school districts were reeling this week after voters roundly rejected their requests to raise property tax rates to compensate for a reduction in state aid.
"I don't think I can figure out what went wrong," Hutto Superintendent Doug Killian said. "At this point, I have to figure out how to make it work for our district. I don't just want to be able to run efficiently — I want it to be successful. I can make these cuts, but will it run well when I do?"
The Hutto school district adopted a $37 million budget for the 2011-12 school year after cutting $4.5 million. Veterans Hill Elementary School was shuttered. Fifth grade was moved to middle school to make room at the remaining elementary campuses and 70 employees were let go, including a quarter of central office administrators.
Every option is back on the table because the district will need to find $2.1 million more in reductions, Killian said.
"We're going to have to take a little more from all areas to make it work," Killian said. "I do see this will impact our classrooms."
In Dripping Springs, Superintendent Mard Herrick said the district will have to absorb $3.1 million in cuts from an already lean budget . The school district had previously trimmed expenses by $2.5 million in the wake of state budget reductions. Teachers now routinely take out their own trash and sweep their classrooms. Employee sick leave was eliminated, and students are now being charged a $50 middle school fee and $125 high school fee to participate in extracurricular activities.
"We tried to stay as far away from the classroom as possible, but that will be increasingly difficult in the future," Herrick said.
Across the state, voters approved tax rate increases in nine of Tuesday's 13 elections, according to Joe Smith of TexasISD.com. In one West Texas school district, voters split evenly, and a recount is under way.
"Most of it comes down to a local district's relationship with voters," Smith said. "Do you feel that we did a good job with the last dollar you gave us? If you do, then we'll give you another."
Tuesday's 69 percent passage rate was consistent with the results in the 400 school tax rate elections held since 2006, when the Legislature first required districts to seek voter approval to exceed a property tax rate of $1.04.
Peggy Venable , state director of Americans for Prosperity and an advocate of limited government, said taxpayers are often in the dark about how school districts are spending their money, so they believe school officials when they say they need more to educate children.
"It's hard to say no to local school officials, but it's our opinion we need to be saying no more often," Venable said.
The number of school districts that chanced an election this fall was fairly small, particularly given the significant reduction in state education aid this year.
Every school district took a 6 percent cut in the first year of the 2012-13 state budget as the Legislature underfunded schools by $4 billion.
Smith said the Legislature's final decision on apportioning school finance cuts came too late for many school districts that were considering tax rate elections this fall.
He also noted that school districts received a $630 million infusion in federal money this year — intended to save faculty jobs — that made up for some of the state cuts.
That money will not be available next year, and the reduction for some schools will jump to more than 8 percent.
Dax Gonzalez , spokesman for the Texas Association of School Boards, said school districts will have a difficult time absorbing those reductions. He expects a large number of school districts to turn to voters next year to help close the budget gaps.
Recently filed school-finance litigation might eventually force the state to change the system and put more money into it.
"Districts don't have the luxury to see what's going to happen," Gonzalez said. "They need to educate kids now."
kalexander@statesman.com; 445-3618
mtaboada@statesman.com; 445-3620
Source: Statesman.com
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