Plano North | August 2022

2022 EDUCATION EDITION

WHAT IS A VOTER APPROVED TAX RATE ELECTION?

A property tax rate comprises two elements: 1 A maintenance and operations rate 2 An interest and sinking rate. Voters who approve a tax rate election allow a district to add additional cents to the maintenance and operations portion of its tax rate to increase revenue. If approved, the election would bring around $9 million in funds for the district without changing the amount of property taxes.

SOURCE: PLANO ISDCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

Agency. However, those allotments are not indexed for ination, Hill said. Over the past year, the Consumer Price Index increased by 9.1%, the largest increase in 40 years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As ination rises, the district loses buying power while any excess funds are recaptured, Hill said. Additionally, PISD’s student enroll- ment has dropped about 7% in the last ve years. That gure is projected to keep falling until FY 2031-32, accord- ing to the budget. Average daily attendance has also been falling since FY 2014-15, accord- ing to the budget. The gure mea- sures the total number of students who were in attendance each day of the school year, said Allen Garner, a Region 10 eld service agent and former superintendent, in an email. As the average daily attendance goes down, so does the amount of state funding a district can receive. “The only way for our budget to grow is if we grow [enrollment],” Hill said. Rocky Gardner, director of school district consulting at Zonda Edu- cation, a company that calculates enrollment projections, presented a report on PISD’s demographic projec- tions to the board in February. Despite PISD’s population growing by about 12% between 2010-2020, the popula- tion of children under age 18 fell by about 6%. Since FY 2018-19, the district lost more students than it gained each year, according to Gardner’s presen- tation. Enrollment numbers did not bounce back as much as Zonda Edu- cation ocials projected in the year following COVID-19, he said. Despite the uctuations, Gardner pointed out that the district could see a lot of growth in the coming years. There are about 540 housing lots in the district with an additional 3,261

lots in planning stages, Gardner said. About 750 multifamily units are also under construction, which should impact the district in one to two years, Gardner said. However, those units could amount to less than 70 students, Gardner said. VATRE PISD’s board was slated to consider calling a voter-approval tax rate elec- tion at its Aug. 16 meeting. If that is called, it could help alleviate de- cit concerns. The proposed tax rate, about $1.26 per $100 valuation, will realign the district’s tax structure while presenting a rate lower than last scal year by about $0.061. PISD ocials said the new tax rate will maximize the district’s mainte- nance and operations budget while reducing some of the budget decit by about $9 million. Hill presented information on the proposed tax rate during an Aug. 2 board meeting, stressing the importance of tackling the district’s budget decit. The proposed tax rate will also help oset the loss of about $17 million in federal funding grants related to COVID-19 response measures, which are expected to expire in FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25. Despite the proposed tax rate being lower than the previous scal year, it is still a high enough increase that the district is required to call for an elec- tion. If the election fails, the tax rate will default to the voter-approved tax rate at about $1.23 per $100 valuation. If the election is called, the rate will be on the ballot for voters to consider on Nov. 8. As of press time Aug. 15, the election had not been nalized. William C. Wadsack contributed to this report.

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PLANO NORTH EDITION • AUGUST 2022